Balance
by random-jack
Summary: Post-Starcrossed, but no JLU. When whats left of Thanagar appear with no knowledge of the "Invasion" or Shayera's existence, how will the world, league and Shayera react. Can John and Shay work past the past and who is really pulling the strings? HG/GL in later chapters. AU. Rated T for terminal.
1. Chapter 1

Balance

A/N

Okay im dropping _Deception _for the time been, this story is going to be similar to it, but to get rid of the continuity errors im going to be starting post-starcrossed but pre-initiation. The JLU will not be making any appearance, other heroes may appear but not as part of the league. I'd really appreciate some reviews, _especially_ if it's criticism, no really I love criticism. Now on with the show.

P.S

Just an advanced apology for any grammatical mistakes, I use works, which has spell check but not grammar check (and grammar isn't my strong point)

Chapter 1: Drowning

Black Knight Bar

"It's been a month to the day since the Thanagarian invasion took place and-"

Click

"Still no word from the justice league on the whereabouts of Shay-"

Click

"Still no sighting of the apparent betrayer-"

Click

"GOOOAAAAL! A fantastic move by….."

"Yo Lance! Why is this door locked, I gotta go man" shouted one of the regulars.

"Wrong door Ted, try the other side of the bar man"

"What are you hiding in here lance this door was always open"

"Just a very private guest, that pays me a not to inconsiderable amount of money, to make sure the spirits never run dry"

"Sounds like a party, hey open up, ill buy you a shot!" yelled Ted trying to force the door.

"Go to hell, Lance we have a deal get him out away!"

Came a female voice from the other side

"Hey lance, you got yourself a girl in here, come on man, just let me have a look"

"Ted! Get yourself out of here before I call the cops, you've obviously had too much to drink"

"Aww, come on Lance just-"

"Out!"

"Fine, never liked this place anyway, see you around, or not" mumbled Ted as he left the Bar.

Lance sighed as he looked round at his deserted bar, locking the door he made his way to the door Ted was trying to force his way through, unlocking it and entering he noticed the small fire roaring away and the shadowed figure slumped on the tattered leather sofa, staring into the fire. The next thing he noticed was the eleven empty bottles of vodka, whisky and sambuca lining the table.

"_Humph_ going for a new record today, anyway im shutting up for the night, just thought I'd let you know"

"Your shutting at half ten on a Friday night?" came a completely emotionless reply.

"Yeah, well ever since the invasion the GCPD and the Bat have been on one heck of a crackdown, people seem scared of getting even slightly over the limit now"

"Sorry"

"Ha, don't sweat it, I wouldn't be here if you hadn't done what you did"

"Don't go there Lance, we've been over this"

"Well I just think that some people should-"

"Just drop it Lance I don't want to hear it"

"…..Do you even feel the effects of alcohol"

"Ha, you kidding I could clear out most of the bars in Gotham before you could call me drunk"

"Must've made for long parties on Thanagar eh?" joked Lance

"Night, Lance" she half snarled

Noticing the clenched fist and the opening of yet another whisky he sighed and gave up "Night, Shay" he muttered closing the door behind him.

Upon hearing the familiar sound of lance going upstairs Shayera poured another pint of whisky, threw in a few cubes of ice and downed half the Glass before muttering "I was beginning to think you'd lost your touch _Batman_"

"You really shouldn't underestimate me _Hawkgirl_" Batman noticed her flinch at the mention of Hawkgirl.

"Underestimate you, ha, I was constantly in fear that you already knew everything about me….the ironic thing is, I now wish you did"

Batman glanced around the room, taking in the makeshift bed, a mattress and a seeping bag, the huge stockpile of empty bottles of spirits, then he caught a glimmer of what he was searching for, her mace was buried in the fire. "That's an unusual place to leave a mace"

"Really? And I suppose there is a standard place to keep a mace, a nice thing about Nth metal, it doesn't conduct heat at all, now why don't you drop the attempt at small talk and tell me what you want, want me to turn myself in, to tell you why I betrayed you all, oh maybe what was in it for me"

"The reason no one has heard from the league, we've been busy attempting to reverse engineer from your ship some technology-"

"And I suppose you want me to hand over the keys and tell you how everything works"

"Well that would be nice but-"

"Well im sorry but no, if there is one thing you should take my word for it's that giving this planet technology as advanced as ours is not a good idea, trust me I've seen what happens"

"Well actually, we may not have been able to get into your ship but luckily we managed to remove the sensors and get them working, what we found when we activated the long range sensors, was this" finished Batman handing over the scans

Batman noticed Shayeras Jaw drop slightly "What is out there" he asked.

"Well, the only planets capable of amassing a fleet that size are New Genesis, Apokolips and Gordan and was Krypton and Thanagar….it looks to me that the Gordanians are moving on to the next part of this Galaxy….Perhaps I didn't make such a good decision after all…. don't you just love irony" groaned Shayera downing the rest of the pint and immediately pouring another.

"Then…it seems we are going to need your help" said a rather reluctant Batman

Shayera laughed rather hysterically at this for a moment before regaining composure "Help, you want my help, well here's what I suggest you do, you take those fifteen thousand nuclear war heads, you spread them strategically across the earth and then detonate them before the Gordanians get here, because I can assure you, you will wish you had if you don't"

"You have fought them before, you can teach us what to do"

"Your right, I have fought them before, all I've done is fight them, all our race has done for the last five hundred years is fight them, no one will ever know that all our race has done, for the last five hundred years is protect this entire galaxy, the last I heard we were finally breaking the deadlock and making advances, I don't know what happened, but I know this, thanks to my decision, potentially every single living thing in this entire galaxy could eventually be killed, thanks to me"

"You made the right decision, they had no right-"

"Really Batman, you're a logical person, heck you actually provide a half decent challenge at chess and what I have done is sacrifice the queen for the sake of a pawn that will never make it to the end of the board, you don't get it do you, no matter what decision I made earth was always going to lose, I made the wrong decision, Thanagar would've destroyed earth instantly, not exactly what I'd call nice, but the Gordanians, they'll break you, they'll destroy continents and they'll enslave what's left until your no longer needed and then they'll suck the planet dry of what is needed to sustain life and whatever is left of the humanity will either resort to cannibalism or die an excruciating death, I suggest you start on that bucket list" finished Shayera finishing yet another pint of whisky.

"I didn't think warrior races like yours were capable of simply giving up" stated Batman bluntly

"Batman you're a smart man, but im smart too, trying to and forgive the pun ruffling my feathers isn't going to work"

Batman just narrowed his eyes to his infamous Bat-glare "You know Shayera, despite everything I'd have thought despite everything, you'd have a least tried, you allowed your race to perish to protect this one, and now your just going to sit back and down pints of whisky until you die" attempted Batman who got the shock of his life when he made eye contact with her and noticed tears streaming down her face.

"Goodbye Batman" muttered Shayera who had failed to notice he had already left, sighing she started to open another bottle of whisky before looking at it in disgust and launching it into the fire.

Johns apartment - Detroit

Thud, Thud

"John! Open up!" _ThudThudThudThudThud _"John, I know your in there, open up before I open it up!"

"Just give put the ring through the door and leave, I don't need you to rub it in Katma" shouted John

"I told you she was trouble, I told you she was no good!" replied Katma

"You don't understand!…and why would you even care!" said john throwing the door open and snatching the ring out of a startled Katmas hands

"You, you've been drinking again, we have to keep ourselves in perfect condition, look at the state of you"

"oh yeah" muttered John slipping the ring on, eyes turning the familiar shade of green "well now im fine again, now get out of my sector"

Katmas face creased up in anger as she noticed some photos of John and Shayera on the kitchen side "you need to forget her, she is no good john, all Thanagarians are the same!" she shouted aiming her ring and preparing to wipe the photos from existence before been thrown aside by a huge emerald hand construct and out of the door, the large construct then slammed the door behind her. Picking herself up and marching to the door she prepared to blast the door of it's hinges before lowering her ring "You need to move on John, I know how races like that work, if she is even alive she'll have banished herself to some sort of exile, even if you found her somehow she'll never be anything like the person you fell for, take my advice John and move on, you'll thank me for it one day" she finished, hanging by the door she waited a few moments for a response before giving up and flying off.

John just stared the whole time at the photos, one in particular brought a wealth of emotions to his eyes, Mr McGhee one of Johns long time friends in Detroit, someone who was pretty much a father figure to him, happened to be on holiday in Las Vegas' at the exact same time that the Joker had set up one of his ridiculous schemes in the city. McGhee had actually managed to take a Photo whilst Shayera was attempting to resuscitate John after he had almost sacrificed himself to save her. There was no posing for a photo like this, none of her usual attempt at remaining emotionless, the desperation and longing on her face, the fear, he remembers foolishly asking if it was all a lie, all it took was one look at this photo and everything he feared was quickly washed away.

Slipping the ring off and grabbing another bottle of beer he sighed to himself annoyed at the fact he has to get drunk all over again.

Watchtower II

Sat at the table Batman who had decided to take temporary control of the league whilst Superman calmed himself down, Supermans reaction after Shayera had left had actually stunned Batman and for the first time ever he had found that he had his piece of kryptonite in his hand ready to use. He looked to Superman who was sat on his left, he appeared relaxed and composed now, but he knew superman better he still had a deep seated anger built at Shayera. Further too the left was the empty chair of the flash and further to the left still, was J'onn sat there as emotionless as ever. Looking over to his right he caught the eye of Wonder Woman who annoyingly flashed him a brilliant smile, pretending not to notice he looked to the empty chairs of the Green Lantern and Hawkgirls chair of which he had insisted be installed adding "she'll be back" He sighed in his mind before producing a voice recorder from his pocket. "Were is John and Wally" he asked straight to the point.

Everybody looked around expecting someone else to know the answer to the question.

"Sorry we're late" came the voices of both Wally and John.

"Were have you two been, your almost fifteen minutes late" as Wally began to reply Batman cut in "actually I don't need to know your excuse Wally, but I expected better from you John"

"I had…personal matters to attend to….I trust you'll be leaving it at that"

Batman narrowed his eyes, but decided to let it go before continuing "Now three days ago me and J'onn managed to get the long range scanners working on Shayeras spaceship….and they picked up this" said Batman bringing up a holographic image of the galaxy which had the solar system, Earth and Thanagar marked out as yellow dots, from Thanagar a red line was very slowly making its way towards earth.

"What is that" enquired Diana

"Well the scanners on the ship not only detected the fact that something is approaching but the number as well"

Batman appeared to be deciding whether or not to reveal the information "Bruce just tell us" almost pleaded Diana

Batman narrowed his eyes in anger at the use of his real name before continuing "Fine, what ever is heading towards us numbers at over three hundred thousand objects and some of them are several miles long"

"What are they" asked the Flash pretending to reattach his jaw .

"Well there not following any kind of normal space trajectory like asteroids or comets so, it is a fleet of ships"

"Three hundred thousand!…..how many ships were there during the Thanagarian invasion?" blurted Superman

"seven hundred and fifty not including fighters" replied Batman

"Not including fighters, so there could be even more" asked Wally

"each thanagarian ship averaged between ten and fifty two fighters" Batman once again replied.

"So there could be over three million fighters" asked a stunned Diana

"Not necessarily, were not dealing with Thanagarians this time"

"Who are we dealing with then" asked John

"Perhaps this will help" finished Batman pressing the play button on the voice recorder before leaving the room.

Ten minutes later Batman walked back into the founders room, a room of which was currently bathed in absolute silence as the message finished _"Goodbye, Batman"_ the obviously upset voice of Shayera finished a few seconds later the distant sound of shattering glass could be heard before the recorder fell silent. Before anyone could react a message started flashing across the hologram _"unauthorized movement detected in hangar bay, unauthorized movement detected-" _As quickly as the message started it stopped and the hologram of the galaxy began to zoom in on Thanagar a quick icon that popped up and what appeared to be a password was entered before what appeared to be a live image of Thanagar appeared, the planet was literally shattered with half of the planet completely unrecognisable, the liquid core of the planet was spewing like a brilliant golden fountain into the void of space.

"Some sort of teleport was detected in the hangar bay….apparently directly next to Shayeras ship" said J'onn flicking the image of and replacing it with a security recording of the hangar bay a few second earlier, which showed Shayera appearing in the hangar bay and entering her ship. The image then flicked back to the galaxy which had now zoomed to the red blip with what appeared to be some kind of recording playing.

"Can we get some sound for this recording" queried John

"No, it's internal, obviously from the ship" answered Batman

"Well what are we waiting for lets see what she's found" said superman striding out of the room as everyone followed him.

A/N

Thought it would be better to start a story of from a familiar start point, as you will probably be able to tell, I like writing Shayera, John and batman best, I mean come on they are the best to write. Don't be afraid to review and I wont be afraid to write. We got a deal?

Also once again this is basically a re-write there will be some changes but the plot you may have figured from "deception" is basically the same here. So please don't put in a review "it doest seem very different from "deception"

Random Jack Out


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Flight

Outside Shayeras Ship 

"Shayera! _thud thud thud _Open Up!" Almost screamed Superman knocking the ship back a few feet from the force of his knock, hissing with pain as he looked at his knuckles that had somehow had a fair chunk of skin ripped off them.

"Another benefit of Nth metal….it really is indestructible, feel free to knock yourself out" came Shayera voice over some sort of intercom.

Inside the Ship

Scanning through the frequencies attempting to glean some information from the approaching fleet "Damn it, come on who are you" she muttered as she continued to flick through the frequencies.

"come on"

Still nothing

"Come on" she snarled

Still no signal at all

"that's it…that's all the channels….except"

Flicking to the only channels she had avoided, the ship was suddenly inundated with thousands of signals.

"Oh…this is so messed up" moaned Shayera burying her head into her hands

Outside the ship

"How did she get on board the watchtower" moaned Superman

"Seriously Clark get a grip….their technology is thousands of years above anything we have, she probably didn't even notice any of the safe guards we have in place….Flash…phase through the ship"

"Aww man, this is a new flash suit" sighed Wally, upon noticing everyone's angry face he went "Haha yeah…ill be right back" he said as he phased through the ships entrance.

Inside the Ship

A world of unfamiliar sounds greeted flash as he slowed himself to normal speed; he quickly made his way forward to were he assumed the cockpit must be, as he made his way further into the ship he noticed Shayera slumped forward over the controls with her head in her hands.

"I know your there Flash, your lucky I turned of the electrical field around the ship or you'd have been fried when you pulled your little stunt back there" grumbled Shayera

"What's the matter Shayera, what's going on" pleaded Wally

"I don't know Wally, for once I just have absolutely no idea what's going on" muttered Shayera

"Do you know how long those Gordanians are going to take to get here?"

"Their not Gordanians" she groaned

"What?"

"Their not Gordanians….their….their Thanagarians"

"Wha…but the Gordanians….How?" stuttered Wally.

" just told you Flash…I don't know…I brought up an image of Thanagar and it was destroyed…I assumed it was the Gordanians, so out of curiosity I brought up an image of Gordan and it too was destroyed"

"I..I better tell the others" said flash zipping out of the ship

"Yeah you better" muttered Shayera punching in some commands to the console

Outside the ship

"Guys…guys! It's not the Gordanians their planet is destroyed too, it's the Thanagarians" shouted Wally to the rest of the startled league as he phased back through the ship.

"So their back to finish the job, Diana alert thermiscyra, J'onn alert the UN and John call the Corps and see what they say, I'll get in contact with new genesis and see if they'll help at all, Wally go back through the ship at incapacitate Shayera will you" panicked Superman

"Sit down and shut it Clark, they took down all the Earths defences in a few hours, now the force their sending is larger than all the earths militaries put together and hundreds of years more advanced, if the Gordanians are destroyed and Thanagar is destroyed yet the military still exists then the original invasion was for motives that apparently don't exist" explained Batman

"Then it was just a cover up to take our planet" returned Clark

"If they came for the planet, then why did they leave?"

Clark had no reply for that so simply sat there in silence. Before anyone else could say anything a deep rumbling sound alerted them all to the ship that was taking off behind them.

"Were is she going….ill stop it" said superman as he flew in front of the ship and held it at bay.

"You know Clark if I wanted you off this ship, I could do it you know" threatened Shayera over the intercom

"Oh yeah do it then" replied Superman instantly

"…..alright, fine we'll do it your way" sighed Shayera landing the ship rather abruptly and flipping down the entrance. Everyone else just stood there expecting her to exit the ship "Well come on in, I've got places to be you know" came Shayeras voice.

As everyone entered the ship Shayeras rather erratic voice came over the intercom again "you know despite everything, your all still too trusting I could've incapacitated you all just now….well come on no point dwelling on it now, come on"

"Err, does anyone else think Shayera may have lost it slightly here" asked Wally

"You know Wally, your lucky I actually like you, most people that have annoyed me as much as you have, are dead" laughed Shayera over the intercom.

"Okay she has definitely lost it" muttered Wally

"Hurry up would you, I've got to get out of here and try and drag them away from here" came Shayeras voice sounding slightly panicked now.

"Damn she is really freaking out about this, you getting anything from her J'onn" asked Superman

"Surprisingly yes, her mental shield seems to have taken some kind of battering and im able to read pieces of her" replied J'onn stoically.

"And?" asked Diana

"It's a dark place to be, im actually blocking her mind from me at the moment because…..actually I can't sense her now, I've lost her, and we must hurry" added J'onn.

Bursting into the cockpit they found Shayera collapsed on the floor beside the chair and on the control panel, one of the monitors was displaying an image of a seemingly equally stunned Thanagarian.

Batman immediately stalked over to the monitor and demanded "What have done to Shayera and what are you doing back here"

The Thanagarian on screen looked visibly bewildered and obviously had no idea what Batman had just said. The Thanagarian on screen then removed his helmet very quickly and just as quickly attached another stranger looking black helmet, a flash of pain appeared briefly across the Thanagarians face and he gasped out in pain before quickly ripping of the black helmet, throwing the silver one back on and clutching his face in obvious pain. Composing himself quickly he attempted "d-d-do you have any I-idea how much learn-learning a new language instantly hurts, ah by the hells that hurt" grumbled the Thanagarian.

Superman and the Thanagarian then both began to accuse each other of various crimes at the exact same time, with both of them practically screaming at each other Batman decided to intervene "ENOUGH!, this is getting us nowhere" at this both Superman and the Thanagarian silenced before Batman continued "Well apparently you have some accusations you wish to make against earth, would you care to inform us what these accusations are?" asked Batman maintaining a neutral monotone voice.

Visibly both extremely angry and slightly upset at the same time the Thanagarian said "We have no idea how, or why you did it, but we traced the energy signature of the weapon that destroyed Thanagar and found the origins of the trace to end in this sector of space. In this sector of space the only populated planet for light years is the planet known as earth. So we have come to find answers and justice for the fifteen billion Thanagarians who were destroyed without a warning what so ever. Well I have said what I needed to say, so go on what are your accusations" the Thanagarian the turned away from the monitor and shouted "Commander Hol, give the signal to halt the fleet" before returning to face the monitor.

"Hol?" exclaimed the Flash surprising the rest of the leaguers by been the first to notice something important for once.

"What" grumbled the now obviously annoyed Thanagarian

"Wait, you're a Hol too, or is that some kind of title" asked Wonder Woman

"No it is a family name, now I thought you had some accusations, now your asking me about my name" said the Thanagarian with obvious annoyance and desire to hurry the situation up.

"Im sorry, but do you by any chance know a, Shayera Hol?" asked Superman

"Yes, that was the name of my Daughter" sighed the Thanagarian with a now distant look in his eyes.

Everyone looked at each other with obviously shocked expressions, except Batman who asked "Was? You mean she was your daughter before she became a traitor?"

The Thanagarian now looked both extremely confused and angry "Thanagarians don't do betrayal to well. She was my daughter before she died, now can we drop the small talk, there are rather important matters you need to attempt to explain" the Thanagarian finished looking rather smug.

As Batman was about to reply he was cut short by the Flash "erm, guys? Did anyone notice Shayera leave?" Batman turned and instantly spotted a crumpled piece of paper that wasn't there when he entered, unfolding it, it read _I'm sorry for breaking into the Watchtower but I decided to unlock the ship and de-power its defences when I heard you were trying to reverse engineer it, I wasn't really unconscious (obviously) you may have noticed the controls have been translated to English and the passwords deleted, you now have access to all my records and entries from my time on earth, I know you'll find them useful Batman also your right I cant sit and drink till I die, I have far to long left to live for that, but neither can I be a part of this team, I don't know were I'll go from here but ill be making sure I wont be coming into contact with any of you again, even you wont find me Batman, Once again im sorry….for everything._

Batman quickly showed everyone the note and faintly heard John mutter "so Katma was right" as he read it.

Batman noticed Superman beginning to get agitated about the note, so before things got out of hand he siply stated "we have more important issues to deal with right now" turning his and the rest of the leagues attention back to the Thanagarian

Going in to confirm one of his suspicions Batman asked "You haven't been in charge long, have you"

The Thanagarian closed his eyes and bowed his head momentarily before adding reluctantly "No we are ruled by an elder council and the military high command, both of which were destroyed along with the rest of Thanagar. I am the highest ranking person left aboard this armada, so the duty falls to me"

Batman then informs the Thanagarian of the invasion that took place but decided to keep Shayeras part in the story out for now.

"Commander Hro Talak, you say"

"Yes"

"….I will investigate this myself, the fleet will hold position here for the meantime and we will inform you of the result, oh and by the way for future knowledge the names Katar Hol" sighed the Thanagarian before the screen went black shortly afterwards.

"Erm guys, we have a serious problem" stated the flash bringing the leagues attention to another monitor.

"breaking news just in, the Thanagarian traitor known as Hawkgirl was just spotted entering the top floor of the LexCorp tower in metropolis, were we currently believe her to be holding billionaire and known "alien hater" Lex Luthor hostage….we'll bring more on this story as it develops, in other news-"

"We need to stop her now!" now shouted Batman as everyone ran to the Javelin

A/N Will she? Wont she? That is the question I ask.

Random Jack Out


	3. Chapter 3

Jane: Thank you for the reviews in response to your questions about the "reported sighting of Shayera"…..well your about to find out. ;)

Chapter 3

Letting slip

Ground Floor - Outside LexCorp

The six heroes appeared in a blue flash and immediately the dark knight begun his investigation, after a few moments of checking the perimeter Batman gave his brief analysis "The full news report stated that Shayera broke through Lex Luthors office on the fifty seventh floor, im hoping im not the only one who has noticed that there are no broken windows anywhere upon LexCorp tower" he informed.

"Well, despite the rumours I can tell you from experience that the media don't like to publish stories purely for the sake of it" added Superman calmly whilst looking around for Batman.

"Where's he gone" asked Superman concentrating to detect the dark knight with his super hearing "he's making his way to Lex's office, It doesn't matter how many super powers you have, he always finds away to slip away" finished Superman readying himself to stop Batman before Flash placed a hand on his shoulder saying "this is what Bats does on a daily basis big guy, lets leave it to him to it and see if he finds anything, were attracting a bit of media attention here" interrupted Flash gesturing to the approaching mass of the photographers, reporters and cameramen.

Lex's office

"One day earth, you'll realise that the world will be better of left to the care of those who are meant to rule it" muttered the bald billionaire whilst sipping on a glass of whisky.

"One day you'll realise that they still are in charge and we are not above the laws of the world" came a rasping voice

"Batman? How did you get here and what do you want? Sighed Lex topping up the glass.

"I'd have thought that with all of your money you could afford a slightly decent security system" said Batman as he stepped out of the shadows.

"I do not fear you Batman, I don't know how you've remained so successful in your operations at Gotham, I know you Batman, you can talk as tough as you like but you cant kill anyone and im to well connected to be put away, so how can I help you" finished Lex in mock admiration.

Ignoring what Lex had said, Batman continued "A few moments ago, there was a news report stating that Shay-Hawkgirl had broken into your office and was holding you hostage, believe it or not I was here to make sure she didn't do anything…..rash"

Lex started laughing hysterically at this, Batman narrowed his eyes slightly and restrained himself from punching Lex whilst he waiter for him to calm down "Oh Batman, I think you have been spending to much time with the Joker, Hawkgirl, she was the most useless member of your little team, no unique power and any powers she has one of the others always surpass it, now you see that T.V over there, it's programmed to come on whenever a programme or a news bulletin about me or LexCorp is aired, any channel, anywhere in the world" finished Lex

Batmans eyes widened a little at the mention of anywhere in the world before narrowing t their usual glare.

"Batman?" asked Lex looking round "of course he's gone you don't see him arrive, so why see him leave…Whats that?" looking over to his T.V he noticed a small black Batarang with a red light flashing "Oh" the T.V then exploded rather un-dramatically "well that did a lot" muttered Lex sarcastically, the smug smile disappeared when the sprinklers kicked into gear, soaking his suit, destroying the paperwork on his desk and most annoyingly of, all ruining a twenty three year old malt Whiskey.

Outside

Batman grinned to himself quickly before reverting to his usual stony expression as he approached the rest of the league currently been mobbed by media.

"Were going back to the watchtower" rasped Batman

"What did you find-" begun Superman

"Now!" interrupted Batman activating the teleporters remotely as the group then disappeared in a blue flash.

As they materialized in the teleport array Batman immediately strode off, leaving a confused and slightly angry league to catch up.

"Batman will you slow down" and "Where are you going?" could be heard been muttered amongst the Leaguers as the approached the hangar bay, were upon arrival everyone noticed what had riled him up so much.

"She's gone" confirmed Batman looking to the empty spot were Shayeras Ship was.

"But the new report-" begun Flash

"It wasn't real, it was a distraction, we saw the report on her ships monitors and assumed it was a live broadcast, when Infact it was probably some sort of program, we already know her "collapse" was fake, she probably activated the report as she snuck off" concluded Batman with a small hint of admiration.

"You don't seem overly annoyed by this, Bruce?" asked Diana

"Not many people slip past me Diana" muttered Batman in reply

"Hey look there's something on the ground where her ship was" said GL approaching the tiny object

As the rest of the league gathered around the object a light came on and a hologram projected above the device, Batman quickly called out "find away to trace the device, it might be connected to her ship some how"

Nothing other than the blue light projector of the hologram could be seen but the voice of Shayera could be heard _By the time you discover this I will already have disappeared, im sorry for the little stunt I pulled, there were a couple of things I needed to grab from the watchtower before I left, oh and thank you for clearing out my apartment in midway city it made finding my stuff a lot easier, I have no idea what to do at the moment about the Thanagarian presence I'll simply have to wait for there first move, I've patched the Thanagarian channels to the monitors room, so they can still make contact, now that you no longer have my ship, also I transferred all the files I said I'd allow you access to, over to the monitor room computers as well. I will do whatever needs to be done to prevent anther conflict, if they are here for me, I will turn myself in…Goodbye._

"Did anyone find anything" asked Batman the second the device fell silent

"I managed to get a trace, it's just pinpointing the location now….Oh…..that's interesting" replied J'onn

"What, where is she?" asked GL and Batman at the same time.

"I guess she was expecting us to try and trace the device, its placed well over twenty thousand possible locations over the earth and still rising, this was obviously meant to throw any kind of hope of locating her aside, she may not even be on the earth now" added J'onn.

"She must've left the moment we had our backs turned, she must not of heard anything that Katar said" deduced Batman "Split up and try to find what it was she took, John you brought the stuff from Midway so check that stuff for us, everyone else split up" added Batman striding off as the rest of the league begun to split in different directions.

Watchtower Shayeras room

John hesitated before entering the room, mentally preparing himself for the memories that would come flooding back as he entered the room. He entered the room and looked round, Shayeras room they called it, just an empty room with a bed and some boxes piled against the far wall. John approached the boxes and from his new knowledge of her noticed just how much of a detective she was, the worlds most important headlines of the past four years she had been on the earth, cut outs of Superman, Flash, Batman and himself with various articles and hundreds upon hundreds of case files from the Midway city police department. One article caught his eye titled _Midway finally gets it's own hero_ he laughed to himself at the photo unlike his, Clarks or Wallys first _hero headline_ with them doing unimaginable feats with their powers, Shayeras was just her and some of the Midway city police including the commissioner stood at the steps of the museum.

As he was thumbing through more articles, he came across a tattered book with some Thanagarian language printed across the front, using his ring to translate it simply read _lieutenant Shayera Hol - Mission Log and Journal _flicking through it quickly he stopped it at a random page dating to just under seven years ago.

Assignment No. 278

Location: Rasalos - Gordanian Command Outpost

Mission Objective: Find and destroy the Gordanian Commander, Intelligence states the Outpost is currently in the process of withdrawal, Small garrisoned force no larger than 200 gordanian foot soldiers.

Officers in charge: Captain Thragan, Lieutenant Talak and Lieutenant Hol

Wingmen: 72 elite "201st Hunter squadron" Wingmen

Personal Notes: My final assignment as a lieutenant and an easy assignment, working with the 201st makes it more so given there near undefeated squadron status. I knew I'd make it to captain before Hro, final time I'll take orders from that old fool Thragan, the amount of times me and Hro have saved a mission from failure.

Captain Hol, not bad considering how much of a spectacular mess I was at officer training.

John laughed to himself as he read the notes "that's the Shayera I knew, not taking orders from no one, wonder why she's still lieutenant, must've punched the captain" he mumbled to himself as he turned the next page_. _The first thing John noticed was the change in style of the handwriting, gone was the perfectly need handwriting that the ring was translating, the letter sizes were all over the place some words were spaced a few fingers width apart and others were almost trailing into the next.

Easy assignment! Minimal opposition forces! We told that fool Thragan to pull out and report the new Intel. The forces are over ten times what the original Intel suggested, but that old fool and his "Thanagarians never abandon a mission"

They knew we were coming they had to, the moment we stepped of the ship we were surrounded, we tried to mount a resistance but we were overwhelmed in seconds they killed that fool Thragan and most of the 201st as well, I only counted 9 including me and Hro. I don't know why but they find it amusing to let us write in our logs….

Trying to keep track of time now is impossible, I haven't seen any of my fellow Thanagarians, but I have heard them, I've tried to count the time from each of the sessions. One hour of torture, I thought it couldn't get worse but pain is nothing, even if it seems to be every second hour. What they do for the other hour, im their "entertainment" I can only hope that Thanagar can send a task force before they move us. My ears are ringing, the only sound I can hear are the screams of my fellow soldiers….

John stared in shock at the book, as he was reluctantly about to continue there came a knocking at the door_ crap_ thought john as he made a quick sweep of the room finishing just as Batman strode into the room, John quickly placed the book in a back pocket.

"I was just finishing Batman, she has taken her military armour, her Hawkgirl mask, a few sets of clothes and a photo book" informed John

"It took you twenty minutes to notice two items of such size missing? And a photo book?" replied Batman

"She was obviously in a rush and the room was in a state so once I noticed what was missing I quickly tidied up, oh and yes she had a photo book, some of the league, some of midway but mostly just some photos of various sunsets and species of bird" partially lied John

Batman narrowed his eyes almost the minute John started talking but remained silent however simply stated "of course" and left the room leaving a rather confused John alone.

A/N: So recap, Hawkgirl 1-0 Batman, Hawkgirl still thinks the Thanagarians been back has something to do with the "invasion", Batman is suspicious (when isn't he), Lex has watery whisky. I could've gone on quite a lot with the _missions log part _I was going to write a lot for it in this chapter but I've decided to make it a recurring theme so expect more insights into Shayeras past.

Note: Im not that informed on the planets of the JLA so I'll probably make most of them up, hence: Rasalos

Random Jack Out


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N Ah, Christmas time and FF I'll assume there will be fluff galore in the coming days, until then enjoy.

Lost

Thanagarian Capitol Ship: The Horizon

"General, we've narrowed down the source of the energy trail we followed. It is on their moon, not on the planet Sir" Informed one of the younger officers.  
"Excellent work, someone bring me up a visual of the location" Ordered General Hol. Almost instantly on screen appeared a visual of the surface of the moon which had a visible scar "Operations, I want an imaging scan of that site"  
"Right away sir" came an unseen reply  
A 3-D image of the scar appeared on screen showing that the scar descended into the surface for almost half a mile with numerous different tunnels branching out all the way to the bottom.  
After staring at the image for a few moments the General ordered "Commander Hol, Assign yourself a squadron together and I want you checking out that site within the next ten minutes…..and proceed fully armed, we are not detecting anything down there, but that is were the energy signature that matches the one that destroyed our planet originates from" as commander Hol passed him he barley whispered "and be careful, son"  
A simple "yes sir" was the only reply  
"Captain Monay your in command whilst I attempt to contact the league, I'll be in my quarters but I don't expect to be disturbed" finished General Hol

Watchtower  
The single handed most important piece of equipment the league owned, the fridge, Wallys high energy "junk" according to Batman, Supermans self proclaimed hearty country goodness including a large quantity of eggs, sausage bacon and steaks, J'onns random collection of a little bit of everything from curries to stroganoffs, Dianas collection of various fruits and fish, Batmans "im better than you" health food and mineral water collection and second to bottom Johns collection of cold leftover takeaways and beers. John smirked to himself as he remembered Wallys face when everyone agreed he was allowed beer as it had no effect upon him due to the rings powers. Smiling as the memory of a drunk superman and wonder woman resurfaced one of the few times they "took a day off" when Shayera drank the two immortals under the table, the looks on both their faces as Shayera demanded her winnings at breakfast from the two very ill looking heroes. The smile disappeared as he remembered such times would never happen again, sighing to himself he grabbed a slice of cold pizza and turned to find himself yet again face to face with Batman.  
Batman cocked his head to the left a little and widened one eye a little " care to explain this" casually asked Batman holding up Shayeras Journal.  
Trying to maintain a sense of cool John ate a piece of the pizza before adding "Im not really into books, especially if it's in hieroglyphics, I think that's your department" whilst eating another piece of the slice.  
"Really, oh so you have never seen this before" Batman casually continued  
"Correct, now if you don't mind I have places to be" finished GL attempting to leave  
"So how did I find it in your back pocket" the now smirking Batman asked  
Crap "you went into my pocket" asked GL  
"Those uniforms don't leave much to the imagination"  
Realizing he was caught Gl tried a new approach "Look… Batman it's something personal to me, can I have it back" whilst holding out a hand.  
"I don't get you John, when she left at the Cliffside you just let her go, then when she was here momentarily, your eyes screamed I love you, but you never said a word?"  
"It's complicated" added John rather quickly  
Batman didn't reply but just stared at John until the inevitable happened  
"Fine, I love her, I Can't stop thinking and worrying about her, I want nothing more than to hold her again and just to talk. But at the same time, a little piece of me hates her and that little piece of me holds me back whenever I attempt to interact with her, I can't stand it and now I know of her past, I know why she was so reclusive and given what I've learned I know why she couldn't bring herself to tell me about Hro and her real mission here" blasted John small tears forming in his eyes.  
"Why couldn't she say" asked Batman genuinely intrigued.  
"She was ashamed" mumbled John barley audibly, seizing on Batmans genuine intrigue John used his ring to snatch the book back off Batman adding "if there is any human that could read thanagarian I guess it would be you, but for your own sake Batman, do not read this journal, it's devastating"  
As he walked out Batman called "you're going to have to make a decision at some point or she'll make it for you"

Cave-Himalayas

Thanagarian life was never meant to be this way, though extremely hard and usually short lived due to the numerous wars it was pretty simple, your born, you get a few years of blissful ignorance until the day your parents tell you what your born for, usually whatever they do, her family were all military officers which by a lot of standards meant she was potentially in for a good life. Closing her eyes she remembers back to those days, there was always worry and a lingering sense of death, but despite this her childhood wasn't terrible, she envied the humans and their free will, but she spent most of her years surrounded by her family, Katar and Kendra her parents, Arwynn and Rhian her siblings she was always closest to her Brother. Arwynn was the eldest she left for officer training at the first availability and was barley ever heard from.

Then there was her mother, looking to the mace that use to be hers, she remembers that day, her mother was a fighter pilot and one of the best, her squadron was ambushed and destroyed, another lesser known reason for why every Thanagarian carried Nth metal weapons usually that would be all that remains in those sort of circumstances. She loved her father but her death changed him, he put her behind him by concentrating on his work, rarely ever coming home and when he did there was always an air of silence and emptiness.

She remembers how close she became to Rhian through all this they were the same age they went to the same academy for basic training, then came the unfortunate day in every Thanagarians life, the day their career is assigned to them, they decided Rhian would be sent to an elite infiltration unit and she was sent to the espionage wing. Of course any thanagarian can be sent to any battle their basic training covered that, but she only saw him a few times a year after that.

She wondered to herself what they would think of her or if they were even alive, deep down she held resentment to the justice league and the humans, do the right thing they said, the decision should have been easy they said_. I'D love to see any of them kill their own families for the sake of another planet_ she thought. She however had to concede they were right, earth and humanity had changed her, then there was John, of all the things she had prepared herself for when Thanagar kicked her here out of the way, she never expected to find love, Hro was never love it was simply expected and easy they were in the same division, she cared for Hro they were best friends and more, but love, no John showed her what real love was, it was more than a necessity, with John she felt comfortable and secure, she felt as if she cold be herself again and finally open up for the first time in years. I just couldn't tell him the truth though and now I've ruined everything, my planet, my family, my "promised" and John all in one moment.

She remembered laughing at the term heartbroken, but now she felt it, as if a piece of her was gone and was replaced with nothing other than a dull yet never ending ache in her chest. Despite everything that had happened she even felt a little sorry for Hro, he had never hurt her and had always been there for her, a part of her still refused to believe the monster he had become. Now somehow Thanagar was back, the planet may be gone but the great Armada had survived somehow. Gordan was gone too and this confused matters even more Thanagar was supposedly destroyed by the Gordanians so what destroyed Gordan. Becoming lost and overwhelmed as her usual emotional shield faltered she done something she hadn't done in years, she buried her head in her arms, wrapped her wings close round her body and let the tears flow.

The Horizon

"General Sir" called Captain Monay  
"This had better be important, Captain" replied Katar as he left his quarters  
"Apparently commander Hols team have found something you need to see, any contact with the league" asked the Captain  
"Nothing from the league, again. Patch me through to the commander" informed Katar as a communication channel was opened anyway "what have you found"  
"We were literally about to give up, there is no sign of anything ever been here, biological or mechanical, that was until one of my men stumbled across this small symbol burned into the wall of one of the caves" Informed the commander as the image of the symbol appeared on the monitors.  
"Anything on our systems regarding what that could mean or stand for" asked the General  
"Not even a remote match sir, no language we've ever come across"  
Looking out the window to the earth in the distance he sighed in annoyance, he then noticed one of the numerous Satellites orbiting the planet when an idea struck. "Communications, those satellites, can we access them?"  
"Easily and undetectable sir, very primitive security aboard all of the satellites" came the response  
"Begin extracting information, see if it matches anything on their records" ordered the General.  
A few minutes passed before an answer was given "sir we have a potential match, the language of the Greeks, just a letter of their language called Omega"  
"Try getting hold of the league again" sighed the General  
After a few attempts "no response sir"  
Gripping the edge of the console in front a lot tighter in frustration "that's it then, we've sat here for days now with no contact from anyone, now we do it my way, Commander, Guards with me and Captain bring the fleet out of stealth, but remain outside of visible range, I want them to be able to detect us, but not to cause a mass panic to the general population…who is it I need to speak to, I need an answer here"  
"A bit of luck sir, their most influential world leaders are currently at a G8 meeting located in the city of Metropolis, the coordinates have been uploaded to your ship, sir"  
"Leaders? Plural? Great, now you all have your orders, good luck" finished the General as he, the Guard unit and Commander Hol made their way to the ship

Cave Himalayas

The pain was replaced by raw anger as the warning light flash, signifying that a Thanagarian ship had entered the atmosphere. Quickly boarding the ship and powering up for take off she looked to the map, "Metropolis? Bad choice Thanagar really bad choice" she muttered as she looked through city events scheduled "a G8 meeting…..not again, hell, over my dead body" she snarled as she blasted out of the cave.  
A/N: Can't believe it took so long to write this, overtime+flu=lack of writing sort of realised I had the Thanagarians just floating around up there not doing anything, rather big moment next chapter, still don't know how it's gonna go down got a million ideas formed for it (can I write it like multiple choice?) Anyway shouldn't be long…. If anyones interested :) Don't forget I crave your reviews, even if it's one word (actually don't bother with one words thank you)

Random-jack out


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Ok

so villain revealed in the last chapter, providing you do of course know the JL. For anyone that read the beginning of _Deception_ (and I know someone did) I'm saving my covenant of steel idea for when I'm perhaps a little bit better of a writer.

Chapter 5

Confrontation

Her military armour was re-coloured, the golden parts had been returned to the normal nth metal silver colour with the blue turned black, the crest on the chest piece remained removed and she wore Hawkgirl mask too, as oppose to her more militaristic one. Sighing to herself as she placed the mask upon her head and cringing inwardly at the thought. She remembers promising herself she wouldn't wear a mask again, after all she was unmasked now and a traitor, what was there to hide?

Entering stealth mode and camouflaging completely as she descended her ship towards the city hall, she'd beat them there, just. _Score 1 to me…..though probably my last point_ she thought. It was done now, acceptance was easy, she had nothing to offer, she couldn't stop them and she was barley in a state to fight anyway, the spot on her abdomen where the axe of Hro burned her tingled slightly, She was ready, she couldn't bare to watch the world she'd given everything for still die around her, thanks to her own people. She decided she'd turn herself in to them and take full responsibility for the destruction of Thanagar and if for some obscure reason they wouldn't accept that, then she'd fight them there and then. She didn't know why, she could run, leave the planet, no one would care, but she felt as if she owed the earth one more chance, if her life got them that, even if no one knew it was a good way to go.

Then she saw it, much smaller than the ship Talak brought. _A deception probably, I wonder what they'll say this time_, her heightened hearing could pick up the sound of sirens as she opened the exit to her ship, _they'll never get here in time, not that they'd help._

She paused and laughed to herself for a moment, though a lot of people had fled in terror, she couldn't quite believe the number of people who remained with cameras and phones at the ready. She could even make out a media helicopter taking off from one of the numerous skyscrapers

Grabbing her mace for what would be the last time and with the most determined look she could muster, she strode to the footsteps of city hall and awaited the inevitable _Where the hell is Superman when you need him_ she though as seven figures exited the opposing ship and begun a fast paced approach towards her. Gripping her mace for a life she cared not, they all stopped a few feet in front of her. An awkward silence for a few moments, she realised she planned everything except for what to actually say, although she was slightly surprised they hadn't attacked already. Dread filled her heart as she realised the force that was here the two Thanagarian officers would have been hard enough, but the five elite _hark'nvash _guards in full plated Nth metal armour, not an ounce of skin was left uncovered by the Nth metal they wore even their wings were coated in an extremely light protection of Nth metal. These were Thanagars most feared and successful warriors, only the best of the best became a _Hark'nvash _they were undefeated a _Hark'nvash _had never been killed in battle and their feats were the stuff of legend to several planets for good and bad reasons. Her hope of taking some with her if it came to that was crushed, even in her most defensive fighting style she would only be able to hold out, any attempt to go on the offence would be an immediate death sentence. Clearing her throat and removing all traces of emotion from her voice she spoke "Why are you back here on Earth and what do you want"

"I don't know who you are or what you think your doing, but stand aside and fall in line" Spoke one of the Officers, Shayera could just make out the details on his armour,_ a general, Oh shit, if im quick enough I might catch him by surprise before the Guards can react_

"Why are you here?" she asked again not moving and flaring her wings a little

The one she recognised as the General sighed before adding "We are here to bring whoever destroyed Thanagar to justice"

Looking a little solemn for a moment before composing again she said "Perhaps you do not recognise me with my _other_ mask on" she said as she threw her mask off, laughing a little to herself at the reaction of the two officers at the usually intimated gesture of removing a mask before adding "it's me, your _traitor_, I am responsible for the destruction of Thanagar and this Planet had nothing to do with it, I willingly embrace the death im due for my actions"

The two officers looked bewildered, this caught her off guard for a moment, but she snapped into focus as she noticed the Guards go for their weapons, she made the instantaneous decision to attempt to take the General ignoring her own safety, unclipping her mace and swinging it straight up hoping to catch the general under the chin and breaking his neck. Yet as quick as she was, the _Hark'nvash_ were faster still, one simply grabbed her wrist in mid swing and held it firmly in place stopping the whole action, _Crap_ she thought, "Wait….it can't …that mace" the General was stuttering incoherently. This distracted the guard momentarily as it sounded like an order, they quickly snapped into action however when she used the diversion to break her arm free. In the final moments she had to admire how skilled the guards were in unison, each attack perfectly timed one after the other after another. Each time her ability to block each attack became further and further apart until finally her defence faltered, her mace was caught between two spears flying in from opposite directions, snapping her mace out of her hands "four seconds, not bad" she mumbled to herself, one of the guards pulled his spear back and surged it towards her, a cry of "No, Stop!" came from the general but it was too late, the spear drove straight through her unprotected abdomen, through the exact point were Hro had burned her with his axe, though she had suffered much pain in her, she still gave a small gasp of pain and could already taste blood in her mouth. Another larger involuntary gasp of pain as the spear was pulled back out of her; the open wound began to run steadily with crimson blood. The pain dropped her to her knees and tears filled her eyes despite the fact she knew this would happen. The general then pushed his way to the front ordering the guards to stand down before turning his attention to her, holding out her mace "this mace, where did you get this?" he almost whispered.

Biting past the pain she rasped back "it was my mothers, before she died…..what's it to you" her vision blurred a little as she fell sideways to the floor, a small amount of blood dropping from her mouth to the polished white stone below.

"No, impossible, that mace used to belong to my wife…you…it can't be….Shayera?"

Shayera looked in shock not wanting to accept what she heard "You lie, it can't be…." she mumbled as she attempted to stand

"Shay-"

"No, this is a trick or another plan to use me, well not again I wont-" she attempted before her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground and all went black.

Upon seeing this the General snapped into action "get her to the fleet immediately Commander, she needs urgent medical attention, I still rather unfortunately have to deal with these leaders now im here, guards with me" ordered Katar

"Oh and Rhian, do not leave her side, that's Shayera, our Shayera, if anyone can convince her where her family it's you son, oh and make sure she gets this back" Katar whispered to Rhian passing him the mace.

Masking the shock to perfection Rhian picked up Shayera and attempted to teleport back to one of the fleets medical ships only to find the other side completely silent and unresponsive, with the increased media presence and the relative closeness of the guards Rhian maintained a professional composure "General, I'm not getting a response from the fleet, any of them?"

Katar looked up in frustration and a mix of fear "something is happening, I just received a message before you attempted to teleport_ A small fleet, has been spotted approaching the earth, they do not seem to have located us, we shall maintain maximum stealth unless they present an immediate danger_ "Were not getting back to the fleet until this threat passes, we cant use our ships without alerting the approaching forces to our presence, we'll have to make do with basic medic-" he was cut of as a red and blue blur slammed into Katar and held him up by his throat "Stand down!" Katar managed to rasp out almost immediately.

Superman turned his head only to jump a little in shock as an Nth metal spear tip almost took his eye out, noticing another four spear tips aimed at numerous body parts Superman dropped Katar rather abruptly to the floor and begun pacing.

"We had an agreement, you stayed in space and out of sight until we got answers!" spoke Superman in his rarer, more authoritarian voice

"Perhaps if you answered our call once in a while, we wouldn't have had to make the decision ourselves" retorted Katar as the rest of the league appeared in a blue flash behind Superman.

"Is that Shayera, what the hell happened here!" shouted the Flash

"It seems she was somehow following us, she knew we were going to be here and confronted us, we had no idea who she was at first, when I found out who she was, it stunned me, I-I didn't react quick enough" answered Katar looking rather ashamed

"We told you she was Shayera and you killed her, I didn't think you had any more ways to make me more sick of your kind" added Wonder Woman

"No!, no she's not dead, just unconscious, she needs medical help, now, we can't teleport back to our ships, another fleet is heading here, and you only told me Hawkgirl was called Shayera, there are plenty of Thanagarians called Shayera, I didn't think it was my daughter I haven't seen in nearly a decade" rambled Katar the emotions beginning to show on his face.

"I don't like it" said Wonder woman stepping forward

"Neither do I, but they have answers and we have questions" added Batman immediately stepping in front of Wonder Woman.

"Katar, those guards can stay here, back on your ship Wonder woman and I will remain here, Katar you'll follow me and Flash. J'onn will do his best with Shayera, Gl you best go with J'onn, wouldn't want her to tear the tower apart when she wakes" Ordered Superman

"My commander goes with Shayera and J'onn" Replied Katar unyieldingly

"Fine, and why?" sighed Superman

"Commander Hol here is my son, so therefore is Shayeras brother, I believe it is for the best, they were close family" added Katar with a hint of regret just loud enough for the Kryptonian to hear.

Superman replied with a curt nod, at the same time Katar ordered the guards to fall back, the group then split into different direction Superman and Katars group disappearing first, shortly followed by J'onn and Rhian in another blue flash, much to the annoyance of the assembled media and very confused police that had just arrived, who then begun attempting to question Batman who stalked over to Wonder Woman.

"I don't trust Superman to do interrogation, you can more than handle this situation, I'm going to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid" rasped Batman

Was that praise? You don't trust superman? Muttered Wonder Woman terribly attempting to mask her infatuation.

"I don't trust anyone" mumbled Batman fiddling with a device on his gauntlets.

"Why?" asked Wonder woman trying to peer over his shoulder

"Because im Batman" he quickly added as he to disappeared in a blue flash.

A/N hmm awkward way to meet the relatives, next chapter Batman and Superman attempt to interrogate and in the other side there is an "unexpected guest" but don't worry Shayera isn't giving birth, I just thought I'd turn the emotional screw for one more chapter before we get a reprieve.

Please review im dehydrating here!

In a quick random note, why say please read and review, if they are reading that, then they have read the story so kind of pointless :D

Random-jack out.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A/N: Ok it's been a while, Christmas period took up all my time work/family and obviously New Year. I don't get much spare time at the moment and I've hit a bit of a block, my mind keeps wandering to other parts of the story I've yet to write. Anyway late Happy new year and finally got a chapter for you all.

Revelations

Watchtower Med Centre

It's a small universe after all.

( bit of physics thrown in here, Thanagar and earth are obviously two different planets very unlikely to both have the same year and month patterns, I've decided Thanagar has a larger star, Thanagar is further from that sun than the earth is from ours, it's going to be three earth years to one thanagarian year, ill try to distinguish the two as much as possible)

Uncomfortable awkward silence permeated the air outside the theatre were J'onn was currently working calmly on Shayera, outside the room John and Rhian had given up there attempts at a stare down and now both attempted badly to ignore the fact that either existed. They both locked eyes again but quickly looked away, John shifted uncomfortably and almost at the same time Rhian shook himself quickly and rolled his shoulders. John knew that this Rhian claimed to be Shayeras brother, as such John was using the glimpses to see resemblances between them, he was taller than Shayera by almost a foot, well built but due to his height it make him look thinner, the wings were seemingly identical, but what sold it was the brilliant green eyes and the mass of fire red hair falling from under the white helmet. John hated these situations, it was like been at a dinner party, when somebody who no one really approves of is there and in attempt to be nice you force conversation and mock politeness, only John couldn't even attempt to think of where to begin, this Rhian was obviously protective of Shayera he'd immediately took point right beside the theatre door and barley budged since.  
Why does he keep staring? Am I supposed to say something? Do I stare back? Were the questions that raced through Rhians mind, he had no idea who this John was, whoever it was seemed as protective of Shayera as he was, he'd practically had to run to get the place by the door and now he'd been on the receiving end of continuous stares ad glances, Hate these stupid situations, it's like attempting negotiations with people you'd rather just get rid of thought Rhian as he desperately thought of something to say to at least get some for of reaction. Looking to the right of John he could just make out his own reflection in the window, he started chuckling when he saw he was wearing the same facial expression as John was with his forehead crease up in desperate thought.  
"Something….funny" mumbled John unsure of Rhians intentions.  
"Yeah, were both in the same boat right, you don't know me or trust me, I don't know or trust you, we both want to know each others intentions and desperately waiting for J'onn to get out here and tell us some news, so we can quit the staring games" answered Rhian.  
"Yeah that's sounds about right, sorry im not exactly trusting of Thanagarians since….the incident, I just wanna make sure Shays okay"  
"Why?" asked Rhian. The question completely stunned John, how can I answer that, im checking because Shays…my…friend, colleague, someone I come to care for, someone I was stupid enough to let go of, someone I am stupid enough not to let go of?  
"You've got your deep thought face on again" laughed Rhian  
"Oh, well, it's complicated" answered John grinning despite himself

Before the conversation could go any further J'onn phased through the doors.  
"How is she" the pair asked in unison  
"From the actual injury, extremely lucky, missed all the vital organs, there was damage to the diaphragm and luckily the blade didn't pass dead centre, it took of a rib but missed severing her spine by seventeen millimetres"  
"So she's going to be okay?"  
"That depends on her reaction when she wakes; we already know she was never good at accepting help when she was part of the league, now she doesn't even help herself"  
"How so?" they both asked  
"She is severely dehydrated and she hasn't been getting anywhere near the levels of food into her that she needs, looks like she's been living off alcohol since she left"  
"Is she going to be okay J'onn?" asked John, Rhian was now stood there moth hanging agape obviously shocked at the news  
"If she will rest and stop beating herself up, her rib will cause a fair amount of pain, they are always painful injuries, but within a fortnight, with her ability to recover she'll be fine, she's lost close to three stone, and she wasn't exactly heavy to begin with" finished J'onn solemnly  
"Then we need to get in there and fill her in with all the details, we can't have her running of and still believing that everything is her fault" added John  
"I'm not exactly sure which of you she'd be more likely to freak out about in all honesty" said J'onn with a small smile creeping onto his face "I'll go see how she feels then I'll let you in, best one at a time though"  
Before J'onn or Rhian could reply J'onn phased back through the doors, J'onn been taking lessons from batman? Thought John as he disappeared.  
They have there uses came the voice of J'onn in his mind  
Get out of my head J'onn  
Sorry, it's hard to block out sometimes came the generally apologetic reply

J'onn was disappointed but not surprised as he phased through the doors to see that Shayera had managed to prop herself up into as sitting position  
"Your suppose to be resting" informed J'onn as he approached Shayera  
"I've had plenty of rest, haven't exactly been doing much the past few months" mumbled Shayera not even looking at J'onn.  
"Drinking yourself to sleep doesn't really cut it Shayera"  
Shayera didn't reply for a few moments before muttering "why save me?"  
"….Were like family, the seven of us, did you hurt us, yes, and it made us angry too, Superman disappeared to the fortress for a week after you left, Wally doesn't smile or Joke as much, he really misses you, GL has barley uttered a word, she might not show it but even Diana missed you in a small way, Batman was obviously indifferent although he does seem rather defensive about your actions, he admires the fact you managed to fool him and I always believed me and you to be the most alike, unlike Superman, we both knew the worlds we lost, not one of us could simply let you die and even now Superman and Batman are currently "interviewing" the man claiming to be your father, not out of hate, but concern and obviously they want to figure out what is going on"  
Looking away again before adding "it's him, I don't know how but it is"  
"Shayera, I've never been able to read your mind, I'd really like to know the reason you really ended up here on earth, if the invasion was false it would make sense that your story is"  
Closing her eyes and finally speaking with clarity "I was joint second in command of a mission, the last mission before I winded up on earth, it was meant to be simple, it went wrong, horribly wrong only me and ironically Hro survived, Hro somehow put the ordeal behind him and got straight back to serving, but I was broken, the high council deciding I may never be fit to serve in the Gordanian war, so they sent me here to earth "a rehab mission, I guess you could call it" something supposedly easy, something to break me back in, so that I wouldn't be useless"  
"That's disgusting, how could they do that" added J'onn  
"Thanagar isn't….wasn't a terrible place, in fact it was beautiful, but you had to be strong or it'd tear you apart, It might sound harsh, but I found new purpose and drive here on earth, I'd be dead by now, had I remained on Thanagar"  
"…can we trust them Shayera"  
"Im not answering that J'onn, the last time we were in this situation, I told you all you could trust them, this time you can decide"  
"But they are actually them…this time"  
"I got fooled by them last time J'onn, whoever "them" are, nothing to suggest their any different this time"  
"But Thanagar really is gone, correct"  
"…correct" whispered Shayera as a single tear slid down her cheek  
"…Im sorry… I didn't mean to"  
"Don't worry about it J'onn"  
After a few moment of silence J'onn decided to add "there are a couple of people waiting to see you Shayera" a few more moments of silence before Shayera asked who they were "John and a Thanagarian called Rhian claiming to be your brother"  
Shayera responded by sighing exhaustively and sinking back down into the bed.  
"I can ask them to come back if you require rest"  
"I do, but I can't put it off forever send Rhian in first hopefully that'll be less stressful than John  
"Ok….and Shayera I wouldn't normally do this, but John still has feelings for you" added J'onn with a small smile  
"That's what I feared" she whispered as J'onn phased back though the door.

Both Rhian and John jumped up at the same time in a complete deja-vu of earlier on "she's not exactly thrilled but she has agreed to see the pair of you, she requested you first Rhian, she needs rest I understand it may be difficult but try to keep it short for now" by the time J'onn had finished the sentence Rhian had already made it through the door. J'onn sighed to himself before looking to John "I'd imagine there are a million things you want to say…..just be careful John"

"Shay-Shayera? It's you...it really is you" mumbled a stunned Rhian as he made his way towards Shayera.  
Shayera replied by dropping her jaw a little with her eyes widened in obvious shock, she clamped her jaw shut and looked him up and down desperately trying to find anything out of place with the brother she hadn't seen in almost a decade.  
Then she finally looked into his eyes "Rhian? It's really you"  
"Heh, long time no see Shay" added Rhian as he dropped himself to his knees so he was level with Shayera  
"I don't- How, how can you be alive and Katar to, it can't be"  
"I don't know what you were told Shay, but me and Katar have been led to believe you have been dead for the last two years Shay"  
"Two? They told me you died six years- oh you mean our years don't you"  
"Obviously shay, Why?"  
"Its three earth years to one thanagarian year, so that means I was told you had died at around the same time you were told I had died, were you by any chance informed of my death by the council"  
"yeah, it was really bizarre usually it's just automated by the military, we knew you were part of the force capture on Rasalos, when we eventually took that base apparently Hro was the only survivor, what was really strange though was no trace of you existed, your mace, your armour, nothing everyone else got something back except us…..What the hell happened out there Shay"  
"That's not something you would want to know, and I beg you never to try to find out Rhian, me and Hro were the only survivors, Hro got over it by concentrating on nothing but his career and blocking out everything else, me…..I was, damaged, it took me almost a year to get over what happened, a few weeks in to my isolation they informed me of your deaths, then eventually I was assigned….."  
"Shay?"  
"There is no mention of me on the military records then, for any active missions?"  
"No, Shay you were classed as dead"  
"So it wasn't as mission, I was exiled to this planet simply so I wouldn't be in the way" Summarized Shayera as she bowed her head and closed her eyes.  
"Shay" began Rhian taking Shayeras hand "Your alive, were alive regardless of what happened were alive Shay, not many people on our planet get their families back Shay, we might not have a lot now, but we still have each other, those silly promises we made all those years ago, when we were children, we promised to always protect each other and never give up, I never gave up on you Shay until I received any real evidence that you had died, I refused to say you were dead.  
Shayera tightened her grip on Rhians hand "thanks Rhian, you always manage to say the right thing don't you" she added as a small smile crossed her face  
"You should try that more often Shay, it suits you" added Rhian grinning as Shayera allowed a small chuckle to escape "So Shay, as your older and overly protective brother, who is this John"  
"Your older by a couple of minutes quit rubbing it in" she added much less emotionally, Rhian noticed the small smile had faded again, it was replaced with an expression he knew to well, Katar had the expression once the report saying Shayera had been killed came through, Regret. "John, where do I start with him, I was a fool Rhian, I was so unwilling to let go of my past life, Hro and Thanagar, I hid my past from them all, I knew me and Hro could never work, especially after Rasalos. For two earth years I was a small time Hero, before I became part of the justice league, this planet gave me new life and a second chance, I fell in love Rhian, real love, all consuming, terrible, keep you awake all night, tormenting, love. When the Invasion came all the lies were revealed in one go to all there faces and I just stood there and accepted it, they found out about me been a spy who definitely was not here by accident, but worse Hro trumpeted me as his promised, right in front of John" she finished tears rolling down her face.  
"Oh Shay" taking his other hand and lifting Shayera face up by here chin "he's out there right now, as desperate to see you as I was, I mean that, he cares for you Shay….I can feel J'onn prodding my mind, ill come see you as soon as I can Shay, take this" as Rhian pulled out a small faintly glowing pill "One last thing Shay, I know you well enough not to attempt to make up your mind for you, just for your sake Shay, don't leave yourself with similar regrets as those of our father. You can salvage this Shay, it won't be easy, but the rewards are so worth it Shay, you only have to look to when we had both parents Shay" finished Rhian as he began to leave.  
"Rhian?"  
"Shay?"  
"Thanks Rhian, I love you, you know that"  
"Don't turn sappy on me sis…. I love you too" he added just loud enough for Shay to hear "and don't forget you medicine"  
"Ugh, damn you"  
"Or you can sit there and mope, up to you" laughed Rhian as he left

A/N Wow this took me ages, just a severe lack of time, any time I got on I wrote maybe four sentences, Chapter 7 is already under way though, I've basically cut Chapter 6 into two. So up next John gets to see Shay and how are Superman and Katar going to get on?

See you on the other side.

random-jack


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A/N: Ok apology time, First lack of time (self explanatory) then I had I fairly spectacular laptop failure resulting in losing everything. After eventually getting a new one and getting my internet life back I finally fell back across FF and to my surprise a couple of reviews asking for more (thank you) Due to the loss however I have been struggling to get my plot back together (pen and paper don't look so unappealing now) This Chapter will be more to prove im alive than anything, now enough rambling and on with the show. (again)

Revelations II

(Take place at literally the same time as when Rhian and Shayera had their conversation)

"Why, just why did you reveal yourself to the earth after everything we said…" The words blurred out of focus in Katars mind as the seventh round of the same questions from the increasingly infuriating Kryptonian continued.  
Prehaps if you answered our calls…. He mused to himself as Superman continued his lecture, Whats the other person doing though he just sits there in silence staring at me, am I suppose to be intimidated, the rambling Kryptonian and the silent human, sounds like the beginnings of a bad pun Katar chuckled to himself at the thought, much to the annoyance of Superman.  
"Im Sorry, are we boring you?" Came the sarcasm laced voice of Superman  
"Well it's about time you asked a new question, but before that let me give you my answer the same answer as the last six time you asked me why I showed up…."  
"I don't need to hear another we should've answered" retorted superman before Katar could elaborate.  
"Then why continue to ask me the same damn questions, when you know the exact answers, wasting my time, wasting your time, and all the while the daughter I believed to be dead for nearly a decade lays in a hospital bed" Growled Katar as he slammed his fist down onto the table, heavily denting it before quickly mumbling "sorry" and sitting back down.  
"No one knows how anyone on earth can trust you again" added Batman finally breaking his silence.  
"Don't talk about it like that"  
Batman narrowed his eyes at Katar before asking "What do you mean?"  
"Don't keep mentioning the "invasion" and talking about it like it was our doing"  
"But how can it not be, even Shayera believed you were Thanagarians before…" said Superman  
"Well I'd like to talk to her about that myself, but having watched the footage you showed me of the invasion I saw orders that would be illegal and therefore impossible to order been issued, I saw ships with no identifying marks but worst of all this" as he pulled some pictures out that had been highlighted with dates and times.  
Batman snapped them up studying them furiously fast, after a few seconds he popped is head up "The Thanagarians in the photos are from the invasion fleet, caught on camera by different media groups and eyewitnesses, nothing out of the ordinary untill you factor in the times, these are different locations all over the earth and the Thanagarians appear to be….."  
"Clones" Finished Katar  
"So what, we know your technology is thousands of years ahead of our own and we have some levels of cloning, surely your people would've perfected it, seems like a clever ruse to me incase it went wrong the first time" Cut in Superman  
"No, Cloning cannot be perfected as it's a degenerate process, each generation of clones become weaker than its predecessor, it's how we ultimately overcame the Gordanians, Cloning technology was banned on Thanagar before it really begun"  
"Well who else could clone a thanagarian?" asked a sceptical superman as Batman appeared to roll his eye a little at Supermans lack of basic science knowledge.  
Katar also sighed a little to before continuing "well potentially anyone, including earth although highly unlikely, you would only need some DNA or better yet a live captive, also due to the degenerate process I mentioned earlier it is much more likely to involve advance robotics or even cybernetics, the best way I could answer this question is if I could examine a body"  
"A body?" queried Superman  
"Yes a body surely of the few invaders and the seven billion humans, surely at least one "thanagarian" was killed?"  
"No" Batman simply answered  
"But they must've been organic, J'onn broke one of their minds" added Superman  
Katar perked up a bit at this "Really? What happened during this"  
"J'onn got the information he needed and left the Thanagarian in some sort of mental state.  
"Damn it" cursed Katar  
"Whats wrong with that"  
"A Thanagarian mind cannot be broken and read, in the very few instances were the natural defences of a Thanagarian mind was broken the person in question died as a result in every known circumstance"  
"Perhaps J'onn had the capabilities to do it?"  
"Perhaps you should ask J'onn just how much he knows of Shayera then if that's the case"  
A silence fell after this  
"Are we done here then? Can I see my daughter now?" asked a fairly exasperated Katar.  
"Yes fine, but what are we going to do about this entire situation" asked superman  
"Well as you said, you don't trust us I'll give you all the information we know at the moment, you and your leaders can make the decisions from there, but we have a right to avenge our fallen, everything that's happened is connected to the earth, were not leaving until we know were else to go but neither shall we step foot on the earth, that's a promise" Katar added as he left.

Watchtower Med Bay

As quickly as John entered the room, he quickly found himself leaning against the door he just entered suddenly unsure what to do. As desperate as he was to see her and make sure she was okay, Rhian had just left and J'onn was calm so surely everything was fine. John quickly realised this was the point of no return, he could either fight for them not knowing what could happen and opening up again or he could check as a old friend that she was okay and then informing her that they could never be.  
A wealth of painful memories flooded his mind, "look he's pathetic without his toy" his time imprisoned aboard the thanagarian ship unable to do anything, having to walk away as the Thanagarians hurt the people he swore to protect so that he didn't get caught himself, his ransacked apartment after they tried to find his power battery and when the watchtower and for a moment Batman crashed down to the earth.  
The memories faded however as the good won out silly memories also, Shay chasing flash round the watchtower with flash generally scared for his health, Winning 3-0 against Batman at chess, Drinking Supes and Di under the table, her embarrassment when it was revealed she couldn't cook when press ganged to cook a dinner for once on the watchtower, Vegas and the night she finally opened up and removed the mask.  
Taking steps forward at last with the memories still rampaging through his mind, both sides trying to land a winning blow, however it was the sight of Shayera that won over, she was standing back to him wings spread out as she was busy removing the bandage from around her lower back, he could spot a small scar were she'd been impaled but otherwise looked about a million times better than J'onn had said.  
"Feeling better?" asked John  
"John?" replied Shayera, John could swear there was a hint of fear in the reply, he noticed her stiffen, her wings folded in and she pulled down her top covering up the scar, before turning round and sitting on the bed "Rhian gave me a little bit of medicine from Thanagar, I'll be fine" She added almost monotone  
Silence permeated the air as neither could think of anything to say to the other, John grabbed a chair and sat himself opposite Shayera "I might not have known everything about you Shay, but I know your not fine"  
Shay sighed before saying "I don't know anymore"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I don't know who to trust, I don't know if I can trust myself, I don't know if were been tricked a second time" then mumbled but john just managed to catch "I don't know about us"  
John was silent for a moment "I don't know either Shay, part of me hates you"  
Shay dropped her gaze at this  
"But part of me can't live without you either"  
"I can't"  
"Why not?"  
"I, I don't want hurt anyone again" she added straightening up and composing her face.  
John though knew how to press her buttons "That's life Shay it's full of ups and downs aiming for perfection is stupid and that's were I went wrong with you"  
Shays forehead creased at this "You went wrong?"  
"Yes, I imagined you as this person who could do no wrong, I imagined you as perfection, I was a fool, after all true perfection has to be imperfect. I put you on a pedestal above all of us and you got knocked down but now your more real than ever before" John added  
Shay couldn't help but smile at the song reference "then you're a fool, you'd be smarter letting me go john"  
"Is that what you want, I'd rather be a fool than smart loner"  
"I think it'd be best if we just went our separate ways john" whispered Shay  
Those words hit john like a hammer blow, it was lucky his was already sitting down "Look me in the eyes and tell me, don't whisper it, tell me that's what you want"  
Tired green met longing brown "I think it'd. be best. If…" Shayera dropped her gaze and sighed "I can't"  
Johns heart leapt at this, for the first time in months he had something to strive for again. Despite this another silence descended as John realised that despite hearing what he needed to, he was still unsure of where to go from there. Before John could say anything else however J'onns voice rang through his head "John you may want to wrap things up, you've been in there around half an hour and now her father is on his way"  
"Half an hour? Already? Wow sorry J'onn, I best get moving. Oh and she's a lot better Rhian…..  
"Gave her some medicine from home, I have been speaking to him too. Oh and well done for the way you handled things in there John" added J'onn  
"Shay, apparently your father is about to get here, probably best if we had some time to think as well, I'll see you later?" asked John  
"Yeah probably best and im sure we will" added Shayera with a faint smile  
"See you later Shay"  
"John?" asked shay a little nervously  
"Shay? Responed John spinning back round  
"…Thanks" was the barely audible answer  
John simply responded with a smile before leaving the med bay, just in time to as who he assumed to be Katar went storming past him and through the doors.

Katar stormed into the med bay with a sense of urgency and desperation he hadn't felt in years. "Shayera?" whispered Katar almost afraid that she might not be.  
"….Hi..Dad" replied an equally scared Shayera  
"It's you, it's really you. Shayera, I am so sorry, for everything. I-I-I've been a fool, I was wrong to-"  
"Dad, pull yourself together, im alive, your alive and Rhians alive, that's all that matters at the end of the day. I know why you cast us out, I understand now, I know what it's like to lose someone, I don't blame you anymore"  
Katar had drastically calmed at this "Well thank luck, you got your mothers intelligence and not mine, but that still doesn't-" He was cut of from a beeping coming from the communicator on his wrist , giving an a deeply apologetic look and a very exasperated sigh Shayeras way before reverting to thanagarian "This had best be damned important captain"  
"Sorry Sir, a scouting force from Apokolips was heading for earth, now we've always had a neutrality with Apokolips so we brought the fleet back out of stealth, apparently however they didn't agree with this and for some reason engaged us"  
"Casualties?"  
"None sir, some minor damage to some smaller ships, should only require a few hours of repairs"  
"any idea why they engaged us, could it be linked to the destruction of Thanagar?"  
"Possibly sir but it's also possible that we simply scared the hell out of them, in any case we destroyed the group before they could send any information or alarms to apocalypse, but unfortunately to quickly to take any information" explained the captain "Oh wait a minute sir, we just received some information from a Batman?"  
"Yes I passed on the information to him from the team we sent to their moon, what is he saying"  
"Apparently this Omega symbol is the symbol used by Darkseid"  
"So it was Apokolips"  
"It would appear so, sir"  
"We always knew he would eventually be a problem, yet chose to "respect him" guess we paid the price for our foolishness on that one"  
"Sir? Orders?"  
"He took our planet and lured us here to take care of the earth for him. Are you sure no message made it from the scout party to Apokolips"  
"Absolutely sir"  
"Then lets send our own message, remind that fool why he left us well alone till now. Begin charging the Neutron Array, Darkseid can watch his world burn, the same way we had to watch ours burn" ordered Katar  
"Sir? The neutron array, we've never fired that before-"  
"And that has resulted in our demise, everyone feared that weapon so much, but after years of posturing most believed we would never fire it and in Darkseid case probably believed it to be some sort of myth, we'll send a harsh reminder of why he never crossed blades with us before now"  
"right away, Sir"  
"So it begins"

A/N Ugh! That actually hurt, four months basically, anyway im back, im not overly happy with this chapter despite liking to read HGGL it's a pain to try and write, anyway if I didn't post something soon I'd have given up. Hoping to post at least every other Tuesday or every Tuesday if I can, might be nice a give a double posting this week for been so late.  
Special thanks to my last two reviewers asking for more and giving me the kick up the you know were I needed.

Feel free to review, even if its just an emote icon saying yay or neigh.

Random-Jack


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Neutron Array

A/N Im back in the swing of things, bit more situation development im afraid, hell there may even be politics at this rate.

Katar looked out of the watchtowers windows towards the location of the fleet which was now visible again, spreading in all direction across the void of space that could be seen from the window. A bright cyan light lit up the darkness of space, no doubt visible to the earth, signifying the beginning of the firing process  
"Dad? The neutron array? Even I thought it was a myth" asked Shayera  
"No, only a few Thanagarians of high rank knew of its real existence"  
"Why did so few know of it"  
"We feared it, history and other races teach us that this kind of power usually destroys the race that wields it in the end, look at krypton with all their power, look at our past before we managed to change"  
"But all the people it could've saved, the Gordanians would never have posed a threat, we would still be a family, Arwynn and Mom would still be alive…."  
"You think I haven't thought about that, I'd do anything, but it's one time only Shayera, after making one the creators memories of it were wiped and all documents destroyed, all research was outlawed, left only to be used in a most desperate hour"  
Shayera was silent as she contemplated what she'd learnt "then don't fire it"  
"We will have revenge Shay"  
"But if anything of Darkseid survives you'll bring a war like no other to the earth, you can't" Shayera almost pleaded  
"Shay. They sent a scouting party, they engaged our fleet, you've studied military tactics, tell what that means shay" asked Katar looking solemn.  
"Regardless of our presence they were always going to invade the earth. Damn it" admitted Shayera  
"Darkseid has been consolidating his power for years it seems, occasionally launching failed attacks and invasions so people become comfortable and safe, he has lured most of the galaxy into a false sense of security, he doesn't care if were here or not he believes he is that powerful now. Also Shay, Arwynn isn't dead either, she's missing"  
"Some one needs to take a serious look at the computer systems on my ship then because my information told me that you, Arwynn and Rhian have been dead for over six years. Earth years" Shayera added once noticing Katars bemused expression "How long has she been gone, what happened"  
"She took after Kendra, became I pilot, damned good one too, picked up some heavy damage went to engage hyper speed to get out of there, just as she started she took another hit, comms and navigation were destroyed just as it blasted her into deep space, we couldn't find a trace, she could be anywhere, maybe not even the same galaxy. This happened barley a week after you were "killed" it shook her up pretty badly"  
"Rhian?" asked Shayera  
"What about him"  
"How did you get him back, me, Arwynn and Rhian practically hated you after you cut us out of your life"  
Katar was silent for a moment again "I realised at last and too late that death is inevitable, Mom died because I was arrogant Shay, so indulged in my work, so high flying, moving through the ranks. I was an idiot. Didn't realise the danger my position put my family in until Kendra was taken. It hit me like a Nth metal war hammer to the face, I feared that my position would result in your deaths as well, so I cast you all out, I watched all three of you from a far, I saw all three of you graduate from the academies, I always checked to make sure you came home from missions, but I kept my self away other than that. I am sorry Shay. I am. After losing you and Arwynn in a week I decided to try and get Rhian back in my life, It took a long time but it worked, I hope you can come to forgive me as well one day Shay" Almost pleaded Katar  
"I can't hate you, you're my father, we like to think ourselves emotionally secure and strong, I've come to question that lately im still waiting something to go spectacularly wrong with all this, for it to be another trick.  
"I take it the lantern that was just in here is more than a friend" asked Katar  
"Perhaps, I hurt him in a way I didn't even think I could, it's going to be a test to rebuild anything like what we had, im just thankful he's even given me a second chance, its more than I deserve"  
"Fight for it Shay, trust me I-"  
"I know dad, Rhian said the same thing" laughed Shayera  
"Well it's good to see him talking again and smiling" added Katar  
"What? What happened"  
"You remember the girl he kept seeing from the academy days"  
"Paran? She was in the invasion fleet" growled Shayera  
"Yeah were investigating this, but she wasn't, Batman can fill you in on this, anyway Paran and Rhian became much closer friends after you "died" and Arwynn vanished, Rhian told me that once we got back to Thanagar he was going to propose to her"  
"What happened"  
"We never got back, we were the last portion of the fleet to get sent back from Gordan, Paran was already on Thanagar, we were just coming in for final approach when the planet shattered beneath us, he's barley said a word since then, he went down with the search parties, went to the Dul's family home, found only her sword and helm, both of which he keeps locked away now"  
"Oh god, I thought he was the one who got off lightly out of all this, he seemed so, himself"  
"Lightly, shay you died to him, Arwynn died to him and I had abandoned him at this point, if anything he got the worst of it, then to top it off Paran dies. Your like rehab for him"  
"I could say the same, he's like rehab for me too"  
"Shay I don't want to cut it short like this, but im assuming im going to have another angry conversation with your friends in a minute and I have a fleet to run as well, hopefully we'll get a better chance to talk before anything big kicks off"  
"Oh, yeah I guess, good luck"  
Katar turned to leave, as the door to the med bay opened he was confronted by Batman and a yet again angry Superman, before either of them could say anything Katars communicator beeped again "Captain?" sighed Katar  
"Sorry Sir, but were ready for you"  
"For what?"  
"Law dictates before you can fire the neutron array you must deliver an ultimatum to the targeted planet, sir"  
"What, Darkseid wont surrender, he wont even believe us"  
"Sorry sir, that's what the law states"  
"I'll be right there" looking up at Batman and Superman "You two want answers you can come see for yourself"  
"three for transport" added Katar as the three of them vanished from sight.

Rhian noticed the flash and ran into the room, sword drawn, seeing Shayeras amused expression he quickly sheathed his sword before laughing a little at himself before saying "What did I miss?"  
"Katar took Superman and Batman to the Horizon so they could see what was going on for themselves"  
"He always gets carried away when he set his mind on something, can believe he just left me here though" laughed Rhian  
"out of my way!" came a new voice as something fast shoved Rhian aside  
Shayera braced herself not knowing what was going on, only to be pulled into a firm hug by Wonder Woman  
"Di?" asked Shayera slightly worried about her health  
"Great Hera don't you ever scare me like that again Shayera" stated Wonder Woman still holding onto Shay.  
"Di your scaring me, I thought you were going to throttle me"  
"It crossed my mind, but seeing you stand up to them made me realise you were on our side the whole time and made me realise what a selfish fool I'd been, can you forgive me?"  
Shayera was stunned by this but quickly composed herself "Di, you have every right to hate me, hell I hate myself right now, it should be me asking for forgiveness not you"  
"Still doesn't make it right Shayera, im a warrior like you, whilst I was down there just now I thought what would happen if I had to choose between my home and the mans world. I honestly cant say that I would have done any better than you did, so can you forgive me?"  
"On a number of conditions" smirked shayerra  
"Oh?"  
"Don't ever hug me again, seriously you almost broke my back and wings, but most of all don't ever go soppy on me again, I miss the fire"  
"Oh sorry- I mean you'll live" smiled wonder woman.  
"That's more like it" added Shayera flexing her wings  
"Too much hugging and soppiness going on right now" moaned Rhian  
"Oh your just jealous" laughed Shay as she embraced Rhian quickly and let go again  
"Diana this is Rhian my brother-"  
"Older Brother" interrupted Rhian  
"Twin brother" hissed Shayera before composing "and Rhian this is Diana, erm, fellow justice leaguer"  
"Erm, Hi" said Diana  
"Yeah, hi" added Rhian

Horizon

"Stay here a moment" said Katar as they appeared on the bridge of the Horizon in a golden flash. Superman went to follow anyway before Batman pulled him back with a surprising amount of force adding "Don't be an idiot"  
"You trust them, him" whispered Superman  
"No of course not, but look around, play it smart"  
"Well why bring us here if were just going to stand here"  
"He wants you to stay out of visual range of the monitors, because were about to contact Darkseid and he doesn't want Darkseid to know where with the justice league at the moment, you can see Darkseid but he cant see you if you stay there" interrupted a Thanagarian sitting at a nearby monitor, who didn't even look away from it as he spoke.  
"Oh" muttered Superman

"Were ready Sir" informed the Captain  
"Great, patch me through"  
An image on the monitors brought up pictures of another ships bridge, Darkseid could be seen in the background, but a parademon was speaking at the moment "State your name and business" it spat  
"General Katar Hol of the Thanagarian Fleet, Delivering a ultimatum for Darkseid"  
The parademon burst into laughter at this before adding "Of course I'll patch you through"  
The screen changed to bring up an image of Darkseid "General, Katar Hol, it has been a while since a last had a call from Thanagar" he said innocently. Superman clenched his fists at this but otherwise remained still.  
"Don't play innocent with me Darkseid, we know your responsible for the destruction of Thanagar" accuses Katar  
Darkseids expression and body language became much more aggressive at the accusation "So your smarter than I gave you savages credit for, do call me lord Darkseid General, I've been respectful enough to use your rank" replied Darkseid smugly.  
"You'll get no respect from us now, we kept out of each others way all these years, why now?"  
"Ha, you think I left you, I've been watching for years, it was I who set the Gordanians up to destroy Thanagar, I was most disappointed they failed, but still it left you weak enough for me to take you out"  
"You set the war with the Gordanians up"  
"but of course, it would be far to close a battle to go for an honourable battle between our forces, so I got others to do the dirty work for me"  
"You coward, hiding behind the skin of other races"  
"Coward, no, im merely smarter than you honourable fools, your so easy to manipulate, make a few cyborgs that look like you idiots, send them to a primitive planet and watch as they tear apart everything you stand for and eventually build up enough hatred that they declare an all out war on you"  
"So that explains why the earth reacted badly to our presence" lied Katar  
"Ah, you followed my little bread trail then, im assuming you took care of the earth already for me then hmm?"  
"You sick bastard, why earth, you could take that planet any time you want, why us?" added Katar. Batman smiled to himself realising what Katar was doing.  
"Well I must admit you reacted a lot faster than I anticipated, my sources were wrong it seems, they shall have to be corrected. Anyway as you now know im responsible and you must know your extinction is now inevitable, I guess there no harm in informing you that my fleet shall soon be on its way to wipe you out, my scout reports inform me you have only five hundred ships left and most are battered anyway"  
"argh, enough of this, im only talking to you because by law I have to give you the chance of surrender before we can fire the neutron array" acted Katar  
"Hahaha, surrender, the neutron array, oh the desperation is most amusing General, I know from my sources that the neutron array is just a legend, made up by Thanagar to scare anyone who opposes you"  
"were those the same sources that told you, we would take ages to leave Thanagar?"  
Darkseid smug smile vanished momentarily confirming it essentially "well further evidence, given how close the Gordanians came to destroying your planet came and you didn't show it then, I believe this is a sad bluff to prolong your inevitable demise"  
"I hope your right Lord Darkseid, for your sake" Finished Katar in a sarcastic caring voice, as Darkseid cut of the communications.  
"Are we clear" asked Katar  
"Yes sir"  
"excellent" he added beckoning the two heroes to come over  
"What was all that about" asked Superman as Batman noticeably rolled his eyes at Superman.  
"we have the element of two surprises"  
"Been what?"  
"Darkseid doesn't believe the Earth or the Neutron Array exist and believes the Thanagarians have a much smaller fleet than they actually do" cut in Batman  
"Erm, exactly" replied Katar who looked as if the wind had been taken out of his sails some what.  
"Commander where ready again"  
"Yes, of course"  
"What now?" asked Superman  
"Now we remind Darkseid why he stayed the hell away before" informed Katar "Now on the count of four open the warp gateway and on the count of five fire the neutron array"  
"1!"  
Aboard the ISS two astronauts looked out in reluctant awe at the spectacle they could see.  
"2!"  
Downtown Metropolis ground to a standstill as people looked up in bewilderment as seemingly a second sun lit the night sky.  
"3!"  
Even Lex Luthor looked away from his scheming in amazement  
"4!"  
Everyone on the Watchtower, Thanagarian Fleet and most of the earth watched as a white hole tore space apart revealing Apokolips on the other side  
"5!"  
Everyone looked away painfully, as a searing white light shone brighter than even the sun on the other side of the earth, people could see the outline of the bones in their hands.  
"Success, the firing was a su-BOOM!" the anouncement was cut short as an almighty explosion could be heard as the sound waves from the shockwaves finally reached the fleet, alarms blared the fleet shook tremendously, superman broke a monitor station entirely as he attempted to stop himself falling. The Shockwave dissipated against the Fleets shielding, but the sound waves carried all the way to the earth, where all around the planet a colossal Explosion could be heard.  
After all the commotion aboard the Fleet the silence of space quickly returned, somehow seeming quieter than ever before. Batman was the first to his feet, his cowl had an inbuilt sound reducing system if a sound wave became to much to cope with normally, even still the system had been fried entirely, Batman surveyed the bridge, superman had propped himself into a sitting position blood could be seen slowly leaking from his ear, batman deduced his super hearing may not have helped in the situation, most Thanagarians including Katar had been driven to their knees their heightened hearing not helping them much either.  
Batman then looked out of the bridge window and out to Apokolips, huge cracks were appearing all along the planet, massive fissures were erupting and the three moons of Apokolips appeared to be drawing closer and closer to the planet, untill finally the stability of the planet failed altogether and the palnet collapsed in on itself fading from existence as a black hole opened up inside the planet devouring the rest extremely quickly and the three moons aswell. The newly formed black hole continued to spin on its own for a moment, but with no mass left to feed on it shortly faded from existence, leaving nothing but the void of space where Apokolips once stood.  
Batman was both astounded, amazed and for the first time since he was eight, afraid of something.  
Batman continued to stare until the portal closed and the familiar space around the earth returned, seemingly as if nothing had ever happened.

A/N Im gonna say it right now, that's not the end of Darkseid before people jump to conclusions, but Apokolips. Damn, that's a cold ass exit.

Also Hurrah for updates :P

Random-jack  
I aint got twenty dollars neither.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Bitter Return

A/N : Note to all don't say your in the swing of updates then disappear for three weeks. I've got the opposite of writers block, I'll call it writers overflow, I've got way to many plotlines running through my head at the moment. Anyway thank you to my new follows I have now. Also I made up the president as not to offend anyone, unless there was one called Harold? In which case I apologise.

"Is that it, is it over!?" asked Superman regaining his senses but still shouting due to a ringing in his ears.  
"Ugh, it's over although I wasn't expecting such a large sound wave!" shouted Katar in reply as his too were ringing.  
"Sir!" came the captains voice as he staggered over towards the general  
"What!"  
"We've got an incoming transmission attempting to contact us, sir!"  
"Darkseid? Already!" theorized the general  
"No Sir! Earth!" replied the captain.  
"Earth? How did they find our channels"  
"They didn't they simply bombarded the fleet with transmissions from every channel and frequency"  
"Wait, so who-"  
"Sir! Their on screen now"  
"Who!?"  
"Harold Wright, President of the united states of America" informed the President over the screen.  
"I-"  
"What on earth was that!"  
"Well if-"  
"What are you doing here!"  
"If you just-"  
"And the justice league are there too?!"  
Katar remained silent this time not knowing if the President had finished or not, whilst Superman looked on like a rabbit caught in headlights and Batman managed to pull off his signature disappearing act during the confusion.  
"Well, any answers?"  
"There were some variables with the Neutron Array we were unaware off, also you should be well aware of what were doing here, isn't that right Superman?"  
Superman remained silent.  
"Superman? You did pass on the information like we requested?" pleaded Katar.  
"We wanted to find out more information, before we informed the earth" replied a rather unconfident Superman.  
Katar gave an exasperated sigh and buried his face into his hands, whilst the President looked like he had just been slapped.  
"You knew, how long" asked the President  
"Just now, were finding out information even as soon as before you called" replied Superman.  
"Well, why are you here then?" asked a somewhat calmed if exasperated President.  
"….Okay, I'll just get the information together, again, then we'll have a meeting, bring in whoever you need"  
"You don't think im coming onto one of them ships again do you"  
"Of course not, wherever you like"  
"Capitol building, one hour, see you there" finished the President cutting of the communications.  
"Well that was abrupt, someone locate this Capitol building and Superman where the hell is Batman"  
"The Capitol building is in Washington D.C, also Batman will be doing his own research, I have no idea were he went"

Watchtower - Kitchen

John walked into the kitchen, only to bump into the rare spectacle of Flash at a complete standstill, mouth hanging agape and completely speechless. "Let me guess, another one of your amazing chat up lines landed you with a sore left side of the face" Joked John.  
Flash gave half an attempt at a laugh.  
"Something wrong kid?"  
Flash turned and stared at John "Did you not see what just happened?"  
"Yeah, bright white light, big crashing sound, but still I've seen worse storms. Wait, your not scared of storms are you?"  
"What, No!, John, were in space"  
John stared at Flash a moment longer before his mouth formed a perfect O "ah"  
"How the hell did you forget that, were on the watchtower?"  
"Alright calm down, I've got a lot on my mind right now"  
"But seriously, did you not just notice the Thanagarians blast Apokolips from existence?"  
"They what?!" exclaimed a rather shocked John  
"Yeah, they just ripped space apart and, I don't know, like opened a black hole inside Apokolips or something. I bet Supes is happy"  
"Yeah, I err, I bet he is" mumbled John  
Flash suddenly adopted the rarely seen serious face " How you holding up"  
"Im good" blurted John  
"John?" asked flash now maintaining something akin to a bat-glare.  
"I don't Know Flash" Silence held for a few moments "I-I decided to give Shay a chance, and as much as I know I want it, as much as I had to convince Shay for it, I still fear, as horrible as it sounds, putting myself through the same pain twice" admitted John  
"John if you had to convince her, then you can't back out, she'll kill you and not in the Flash your annoying I'll kill you way, I mean she'll publicly execute you, kill you way"  
"Not helping Flash"  
"Sorry, look none of us can ever be put into the sort of situation and choice that shay had to make, but she pulled through for us and im betting mostly because of you, the pair of you are perfect for each other, hell john we had a pool going on you two"  
"You all knew?"  
"You always had different attitudes around each other, even more so after war world, everyone noticed something was up, well except mister oblivious"  
"Mister Oblivious?"  
"Oh yeah Supes, he actually believed you two hated each other, but like I said he can be a little oblivious, thank God batman actually runs us"  
"Yeah, thank the heavens for Batman" agreed John  
"Seriously though you two will be fine, im never wrong on these things, when you eventually get married, im presiding"  
John laughed before adding "well you may have some competition now, but you get my vote" laughed a finally smiling John  
"well if I get your vote im in" declared Flash  
"Kid, a man has no power at his own wedding and with Shayera you can guarantee the decision is hers" replied John who walked away laughing at Flash's heartbroken face.  
Watchtower Med Bay

More silence aboard the watchtower as Shayera, Diana and Rhian all looked into the space were Apokolips had briefly stood.  
"Was, that the…" Rhian Slowly began  
"Neutron array? Yep" finished Shayera  
"By Hera" added Diana still staring into space  
Rhian looked to Shayera and mouthed "Who's Hera" Shayera responded "Don't ask" whilst putting her hands together in prayer and mock holiness. Rhian had to bite his tongue and stifle a laugh.  
"So much power, mortals should fear such power lest it destroy the wielder" Stated Diana  
"So should gods, we had to kill ours" added Rhian who received a death glare from Shayera  
"You never killed Icthulu, you banished it and it reappeared here on earth" retorted Diana  
"Icthulu was not the only god we were foolish enough to accept, there were others who we had to destroy…" Rhian was interrupted by his communicator, "Well its about time" mumbled Rhian looking apologetically to Shayera "See you soon sis, apparently Superman wasn't very informative to humanity, so now were of to the Capitol…yay" added Rhian sarcastically before vanishing.

Diana turned to Shayera "Well you can definitely tell you two are related" joked Diana  
"Your kidding, he's the opposite of me, he reminds me of Flash"  
"How are you holding"  
"Di, im actually good, I mean im spinning because there's so much happening but I've got so much back, im just worried how long it'll last"  
"What do you mean"  
"Look at my track record Di, whenever something good happens, something terrible follows, something will happen, I can feel it"  
"Shay what could happen, as much as I didn't like it, your people destroyed Darkseid in seconds"  
"Apokolips Diana, not Darkseid, there is only one way to truly destroy Darkseid, that's with Radion, also there is no guarantee, the same as us that the fleet perished with the planet"  
Diana's face contorted to pure anger at this "You mean to say, that you have brought your war, to our planet, how do you do it Shayera, how do you keep taking us all for idiots and stabbing us in the back" hissed Diana bringing herself nose to nose with Shayera.  
"Nice to see everyone just waiting for me to stick the knife in again, Darkseid has already attempted to take the earth before, he orchestrated the invasion, also he sent a scout party to the earth just hours ago. He has made his mind up Diana, he's going to invade regardless of Thanagars position, thanks for been so understanding" retorted Shayera as she shoulder barged past a silenced Diana who attempted to call Shayera back to no avail.  
Watchtower Kitchen

Flash was just about to leave the kitchen after emptying the fridge of anything unhealthy, as was his sworn duty, after all even superman had to watch his calories. He stopped however when he heard a rustling in the fridge, he turned round and thought he'd stepped back in time. Shayera had her head buried into the fridge.  
"Shayera?"  
"Wha-Ow, son of a" Mumbled Shayera as she whacked her head on the top of the fridge and pulled out with one of Johns beers in hand. "Flash? Have you been there the Whole time?"  
"Yeah…. Shay what are you doing" asked Flash nervously gesturing at the beer  
"This… I erm, look its helps ok" replied Shayera whilst taking a few gulps.  
"Shay, you can't talk about it ,like that people will think….Oh shay, just how much were you drinking?"  
"Don't worry about it, im fine, it doesn't affect me in the same way, I'd drown before I got even tipsy off this stuff" quickly answered Shayera.  
"Shayera, you might not get drunk but it still can't be healthy"  
"Oh no, heaven forbid I knock a few years of my life expectancy" joked Shayera  
"Shay!, I know you've been through a lot but, that's not the answer, shay I've seen what it does, hell you've been here long enough you must've seen what it does"  
"Why is it that suddenly everyone feels the need to give me advice lately, look it's harmless, it's just a distraction better to sit there drinking then to sit there feeling sorry for myself. It's got nothing on the sort of things that happened on Thanagar" Laughed Shayera finishing the bottle to Flash's amazement  
"Sorry Shay, your like a big sister to me, only shorter. I just don't want to see you hurt again" admitted Flash.  
"Yeah and your like the annoying brother I thought to be dead, but still im fine"  
"Okay, I know when people say fine they mean otherwise but I'll let it slide"  
"too right" said Shayera throwing the bottle across the kitchen and into the bin before turning to be confronted by Diana "ah, I was just leaving"  
"Shayera, look, I want us to be friends again Shay, but your people and their power, frankly Shay, its fearsome. Their sat up there, with that sort of fire power and your shocked I overreacted. What if they are playing you along again, what if they turn on us again"  
"I told you all Diana, I told you that I wouldn't vouch for them, I told you im worried something is going to happen. If what they have told us so far is true then they'd have already turned on us. It wouldn't make sense to wait up there or destroy Apokolips it only weakens their position, that weapon you saw, if the stories are true then that's it, we don't have another one"  
"Look Shay, im-"  
"Don't worry about it, everyone's on edge, there's enough fuel around at the moment all that's needed is a small spark for something big to go down, I just hope we can look back on this and make a joke one day" finished Shayera as she left Diana and Flash together.  
Diana turned to the Flash who simply shrugged at the whole situation.

Washington D.C - Capitol Building

(P.S I wrote this without internet and know nothing of U.S politics or any politics for that matter)

Katar looked to the two Officers he'd brought with him, they both looked perfectly content with the situation, but they were all military men, Katar didn't know a single Thanagarian in the military that had anything remotely pleasant to say about politics. With only an hours notice Katar assumed that the meeting would be the president and a few aides and obviously some security. Then an aide who like everyone else seemingly in the building carried a firearm and were ex forces, informed him, that not only would every chief of staff and senior politician from the U.S be there, the G8 would be present as they hadn't left and other leaders and foreign diplomats would be present via video links. Still it had at least been amusing when they were asked to declare weapons and handed in over twenty weapons between three of them, much to the shock of the staff.  
One of the security staff informed them that everyone was ready. "into the lions den, an appropriate saying as any" muttered Katar as they walk through into the main room to absolute silence and took place in the centre of the room surrounded in a semi-circle by hundreds of politicians and video screens, but most confusingly to Katar hundreds of media broadcasters from across the globe were also present.  
"General Hol…I believe you have some things to clear up and you brought….security" addressed the President as a small amount of quiet laughter broke the ranks.  
"Yes, well, been told there'd be a meeting in one hour I assumed it would be on a smaller scale and perhaps a little more private" replied Katar looking towards the assembled media.  
"Why, do you have something you wish to hide from the world General?"  
"So you read all the information we sent within the hour and organised this, assembly"  
"Yes of course, your point been"  
"Well nothing really, but your happy for every piece of information within the documents to be revealed to…well seemingly the entire population of the planet"  
"Given what happened last time, I believe its best everyone hears as oppose to a select few" retorted the President before adding with a small hint of sarcasm "anyway were are our manners, who are the other two"  
"Commander Kett and Commander Sahldro, head of warfare and head of operations"  
"General, yet again we find ourselves with your race here trumpeting it's desire to help our planet, any comment on that"  
"Well except we really are not Mr President, after all we initially came here with half a mind to wipe this planet from existence" the effect of this line was amazing as the assembly erupted into uproar which Katar allowed to continue for a moment "However!" the uproar subsided somewhat "as I thought you would've been aware we were lured here for that exact purpose, thank you for taking the time to read the information sent"  
"So you have no planet, what's to stop you deciding ours would make a suitable replacement or stabbing us in the back again and attempting to destroy us" asked the President of Russia wading into the debate.  
"Firstly, once Darkseid has been taken care of once and for all, Thanagar, as barren and destroyed as it is, it is still salvageable. Secondly there would be no attempt would we decide to take the Earth, after all the pain and horror we caused, your planet is still woefully unprotected from any invasion from space, tell me anyone, what would you do were I to declare war?"  
The same silence that greeted their arrival filled the air small murmurs of Nuclear weapons and Justice league could be heard still.  
"The justice league, admittedly from what I've seen and heard an amazing group of heroes. Superman your truly ultimate weapon, completely loyal to the earth, a being with the power to strike down an entire race, they've done so in the past. Unfortunately most of our weapons and most notably Nth metal were designed with the purpose of destroying Kryptonians in mind.  
As for your nuclear weapons, with the click of a few buttons I could have your entire planets stockpile under our control, unfortunately that's just thousands of years of technological advantages"  
"Lets say that everything your saying is true, which most here will doubt, if you think it would be so easy to destroy us, how would we possibly have a hope against Darkseid" added the President of China  
"Because the only positive you should take from all the wars amongst yourselves, is the fact you have well developed ground forces, but as you know air superiority is everything here, unfortunately space superiority negates that"  
"But how can anyone here afford to trust you" asked the Prime Minister of the U.K  
"Im not asking anyone to trust us, that would be pointless given our history, we have some information on Darkseids forces, units, common tactics and so on, we'll pass this on you can make of it as you please, we'll hold space and you do what you please down here on Earth  
"How confident are you in been able to hold space?" added the President of the U.S  
The simple question caught Katar by surprise what sort of question is that he thought to himself  
"General Hol?"  
"Well its war, im sure everyone knows there's no guarantees"  
"but you must have some idea"  
"Until we receive the first results of our long range scans, we realistically…. Have no idea what were dealing with"  
"so your just leading us on. You could bring your desperate attempt at revenge to our planet and not have a hope of winning"  
"Mr president as we stated earlier Darkseid is coming regardless of our presence"  
"Well perhaps we could deal with Darkseid on our own terms"  
"Terms, you think Darkseid would listen to terms, Darkseid would give you two terms, surrender or death but of course this is not for us to decide, should you want surrender…or death, then we can still get out of this"  
"So you would leave us here?"  
"What? Is there anything I can actually say that doesn't result in complete shock or-" Katar was cut of as Commander Kett lent over a passed information to the General, whose facial expression changed noticeably shocked for a brief period before returning to normal.  
"Something wrong General?" asked President Whiting with a slight amount of concern.  
"Well Apokolips was well and truly destroyed, however…..It seems Darkseid was following the scout party that we just destroyed, though they should be unaware of the demise of the party. At the current trajectory, Darkseid will arrive….within the week" Informed Katar noticeably quieter as shock spread through the assembly "Whats more, it's a much large portion of the fleet than we'd have suspected, roughly three times the size of our own fleet" gasps and shouts of impossible rang thought the assembly now,  
"Enough, we are live broadcasting across the world, the last thing the world needs to see is fear. General, with this information do you have the answer to my earlier question, also how many individuals are we talking about here, how many do you have"  
"Well our fleet is fully operational, however it is undermanned-"  
"Undermanned, why would you bring an undermanned fleet?" interrupted the Russian President  
"After our victory over the Gordanians we had of course suffered large losses, then we never made it back to Thanagar, so there was never a chance to receive any supplies or personnel"  
"So what numbers are we talking?"  
"Our total currently stands at roughly seven million"  
"What should it be?"  
"Closer to twenty million for this portion of the fleet"  
"Portion, just how big was the fleet"  
"The entire fleet? Never even saw that myself, but if it was all fully manned, operational and in the same place it would be close to two billion total in service"  
"That's insane"  
"Well not really, we had a total population of near seventeen billion, I mean thats roughly a one to nine ration of military to civilian, also we never had police or emergency services like here on earth, all those services were military as well, I mean how much would your military, police and other services completely add up to"  
"Well I guess that's true, also I don't think there a number we could put on that straight away" finished the Russian president  
"So how many, will Darkseid have, were not talking billions here are we?" asked the Prime Minister of the U.K  
"No, no most ships are actually smaller than ours, with the exception of the flagship which is just stupendous, given the fleet approaching and its size the estimates will be between fifty to sixty million"  
More shouting erupted throughout the room for as few moments before calm descended "General just how will a space battle pan out exactly"  
"What do you mean?" replied Katar looking clearly confused.  
"I mean if we were fighting such large amounts on the earth, then the war could drag on years"  
"I see, well unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, a space battle is much more brutal and a lot faster, I wouldn't expect the battle in space to drag out longer than a week, the objective of the space battle would be isolating Darkseid, the only way to win this is to take out Darkseid, If Darkseid falls his forces will flee"  
"And if it lasts longer than the week"  
"If that's the case, then it is unlikely that we will be able to keep larger portions of Darkseid fleet, out of earths air space"  
After this the assembly erupted into uproar again, before the meeting moved on to yet more arguing and accusations, with hints of planning and tactics thrown in.

A/N Okay I could've gone on for thousands of words with that political bit, but I'd imagine that would get boring after a while so I decided to call it a day for that bit.

Also not sure of the numbers I came up with but it seemed realistic in my head, although if anyone disagrees let me know.  
Once again sorry for delays, but this is becoming incredibly hard to write, perhaps I should've done something a little easier for a first story, oh well stuck with it now :P  
Review, tell me im rubbish, mediocre, good or none of the above.


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